Judicial nominee defends tweets
At hearing, Texan explains he used transgender teen photo as a joke
WASHINGTON — Live by the tweet. Die by the tweet.
That was the message to Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, the official state “Twitter Laureate,” facing hostile questions from Senate Democrats on Wednesday about a transgender high school student who made a girls softball team in California.
Willett’s 2014 tweet, “Go away, A-Rod,” over a news photo of the 17-yearold senior, drew the most ire of Democrats on a Senate Judiciary panel considering Willett’s nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas.
Along with fellow 5th Circuit nominee James Ho, a former Texas solicitor general, Willett faced friendly questions from Texas Republican on the panel but searing criticism from Democrats, who accused GOP leaders of rushing President Donald Trump’s conservative judicial picks for political advantage.
Ho, now a Dallas attorney, parried pointed questions about his role in a controversial George W. Bush administration memo justifying interrogation techniques that are now considered torture.
But Willett, by far, faced the hottest Democratic fire for his views on gender equality, samesex marriage, and whether a 13-year-old can legally consent to sexual relations with an adult — an echo of the current furor over Alabama jurist Roy Moore, who has been accused of preying on teenagers as young as 14.
The confirmation hearing, part of a push to fill longstanding judicial vacancies in Texas and across the nation, began with friendly recitations of the two jurists’ diverse backgrounds, which U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called “quintessentially American.”
Willett, the adopted son of a truck-stop waitress, and Ho, the Taiwan-born son of Chinese immigrants, both rose to become “stars in the Texas legal firmament,” Cornyn said. Along with Texas’ junior senator, Ted Cruz, Cornyn presided over a cheerful recitation of their personal stories in the Lone Star State.
Given the Republican majority in the Senate, Ho and Willett are expected to win confirmation. But in a hearing wading into some of the nation’s thorniest cultural issues, Democrats veered far off the Republicans’ sunny script. The star of the show might have been Pat Cordova-Goff, the California teen who believed she was a girl trapped in a boy’s body, and joined a girls’ softball team. Democrats bannered her photo, captured in Willett’s 2014 tweet, on a placard in the ornate, woodpaneled hearing room.
“Do you think it demonstrates good judgment for a man in his late 40s, a sitting Supreme Court justice, to publicly demean and humiliate a 17-year-old girl on Twitter?” asked Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota.
“I believe that every child is a gift,” Willett answered. “Every child is a blessing … I would never demean or disparage anyone.”
Attempt at levity
Willett, a prolific social media user with more than 104,000 Twitter followers, labored to explain the Tweet. “Go away, ARod,” he said, was a reference to New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez — nicknamed A-Rod — who had just accepted a yearlong suspension from Major League Baseball for using steroids.
“It was an A-Rod tweet, not a transgender tweet,” Willett said.
Franken questioned why it was accompanied by a Fox News article about Cordova-Goff.
“I think it was a ham-handed attempt at levity, and at comedy,” Willett said, acknowledging Franken’s pre-Senate career on Saturday Night Live. “Your comedy never falls flat, but mine does, admittedly.”
“I don’t get the joke,” Franken
pressed. “Sometimes, when you don’t get a joke, it’s because it wasn’t a joke.” “It was intended as one,” Willett said, a smile frozen on his face. Willett also was asked by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the panel, to explain a 1998 memo he wrote as an aide to then-Gov. George W. Bush. The memo was critical of a gubernatorial proclamation for “Business Women’s Week” submitted by the Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women.
“I resist the proclamation’s talk of glass ceilings, pay equity (an allegation that some studies debunk), the need to place kids in the care of rented strangers, sexual discrimination/harassment, and the need generally for better working conditions for women (read: more government),” Willett wrote.
The memo also criticized the women’s professional group for what the “ERA (Equalhe called its Rights advocacy Amend- of ment), Affirmative Action, abortion rights, legislation adding teeth to the Equal Pay Act, and they regular line up with the AFL-CIO and similar groups.”
Willett cited his upbringing by a widowed, truck-stop wait- ress. “I know personally and painfully that my mom endured every imaginable workplace indignity,” he said.
“The question is simple,” Feinstein interrupted. “Do you still hold those beliefs?”
Willett, backed by Cruz, argued that the quotes were taken out of context. “There’s not a shadow of a shred of a glimmer of doubt in mymind that women encounter all manner of oppression and obstacles and barriers in the workplace,” he said.
Willett sought to explain his role in shaping Bush’s proclamation, saying he wanted to “cheer the accomplishments and the achievements of talented women in the workplace but without adopting or taking sides on a host of issues.”
In his testimony, however, Willett stopped short of disavowing the statements that Feinstein quoted. Others recalled the sort of evasiveness suggested when he advised judicial nominees in the Bush administration to “bob and weave” in confirmation hearings.
13-year-old’s consent
Democrats also accused Willett of being evasive about a dissent he joined on the Texas Supreme Court that suggested that a 13-year-old alleged prostitute could legally be held liable for agreeing to sexual relations with an adult.
Willett said he hada hard time recalling the 2010 case, but called it a difficult, “gut-punch” case. Nevertheless, he said he sup- ports age-of-consent laws.
Ho was grilled principally on his role as a lawyer in the Bush Justice Department in 2002, when the Office of Legal Counsel drafted a memo advising that the use of aggressive interrogation techniques such as waterboarding might be legally justified as part of the war on terror. One of the so-called torture memos, which Congress has since disavowed, cited an undisclosed document written by Ho.
He also was asked about a brief he co-authored in a Texas case on same-sex marriage, which asserted that traditional marriage is unique because it encourages procreation and long-term, stable, parental relationships.
“This suggests a presumption that gay couples are less likely or less able to be long-term, stable parents,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.
Ho said it was merely his job as solicitor general to represent the state of Texas and defend its laws.
But it was Willett’s Twitter feed that dominated the hearing. Asked if he planned to continue tweeting if he’s confirmed, Willett said he’s not sure.
He noted that his wife, who accompanied him to the hearing, has advised him that it would be wise to stop.
“I really think you ought to listen to your wife,” said Sen. John Neely Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican. “With all due respect.”