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Trump Meets With One of His Top SCOTUS Candidates, a Federal Judge Who Likened Same-Sex Sex to Pedophilia

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‘Activities Like Prostitution, Adultery, Necrophilia, Bestiality, Possession of Child Pornography, and Even Incest and Pedophilia’

A federal appeals court judge believed to be one of the top candidates to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia met with Donald Trump over the weekend. The President-elect reportedly sat down with Judge William Pryor of Alabama on Saturday, according to David Lat of Above the Law. The AP confirmed the meeting.

11th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge William Pryor, a George W. Bush appointee, appeared on Trump’s initial list of possible Supreme Court nominees. That list was complied by a far right wing think tank, the Heritage Foundation. Lat notes, “Judge Pryor, beloved by conservatives, sits at the top of the Trump SCOTUS list.” lat place him in the top five, while AL.com, Alabama’s top news site, puts Pryor “among Trump’s top two prospects for the High Court.”

Pryor’s candidacy is exceptionally concerning. Not only is he a far right wing extremist, some say he stands a good chance of being confirmed.

Judge Pryor’s views on homosexuality are debilitating. In 2003, then-Alabama Attorney General Pryor signed an amicus brief arguing that bans on same-sex sex are not only constitutional, but morally correct. The case in question: Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court case that found bans on sodomy are unconstitutional.

The brief, which was signed by Pryor and the state Solicitor General, compared gay sex to “prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia,” while curiously quoting the Broadway musical “Hair.”

Pryor’s brief, arguing in support of a ban on same-sex sex, says that Texas’ law is constitutional because it does not criminalize “sexual orientation, which may or may not be a matter of choice,” but rather “sexual activity, which is indisputably a matter of choice.”

Petitioners’ protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, a constitutional right that protects “the choice of one’s partner” and “whether and how to connect sexually” must logically extend to activities like prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia (if the child should credibly claim to be “willing”).

The brief also claims legalizing private, consensual sexual relations between two people of the same sex “would limit the ability of the States to express and preserve the moral standards of their communities.”

It also argued, “Because homosexual sodomy has not historically been recognized in this country as a right — to the contrary, it has historically been recognized as a wrong — it is not a fundamental right.”

Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin Cathcart in a 2005 statement said Pryor “has a record of blatant hostility to fairness for gay people.” The group also called Pryor “the most demonstrably anti-gay judicial nominee in recent memory.”

Pryor has also expressed extremist anti-choice views.

“Abortion is murder, and Roe v. Wade is an abominable decision,” he said in 2002. 

“I will never forget Jan. 22, 1973, the day seven members of our highest court ripped the Constitution and ripped out the life of millions of unborn children,” Pryor said in 1997.

Why would Pryor likely be confirmed? 

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions.

Pryor is closely tied to Sessions, Trump’s nominee to become Attorney General. 

“Sessions is a major Pryor proponent — and now that Sessions is definitely going to be AG, having killed it at his hearings, his Trumpworld stock is way up and his views enjoy greater sway within the administration,” Lat claims. (The “having killed it at his hearings” is a matter of opinion.)

But Lat also notes that “Sessions and Pryor are close friends and have known each for more than 20 years. They met in 1994, when Sessions was running for Alabama attorney general and a mutual friend introduced them. After Sessions won, he hired Bill Pryor as his deputy attorney general. Sessions cited Pryor’s work for him, among many other factors, when he spoke glowingly about Pryor at his Eleventh Circuit confirmation hearings in 2003 and 2005.”

Towleroad offers a few more insights into Judge Pryor’s background.

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Image: Screenshot via YouTube

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Mystery Grand Jury Witness in Trump Hush Money Probe Is Former ‘Enquirer’ Publisher and Trump Ally

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Avid followers of the Manhattan District Attorney’s moves noted the grand jury had been called into service for Monday, and soon news leaked that yet another witness would be testifying in the probe into Donald Trump’s alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.

Monday afternoon, NBC News’ Garrett Haake reported live on MSNBC that the mystery witness was David Pecker, the former tabloid publisher of the “National Enquirer,” who reportedly had been looking for stories in 2016 to protect Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Haake notes Monday was Pecker’s second appearance before the grand jury in the hush money case.

The New York Times also reported David Pecker as the grand jury witness, calling Pecker “a key player in the hush-money matter. He and the tabloid’s top editor helped broker the deal between the porn star, Stormy Daniels, and Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s fixer at the time.”

READ MORE: ‘Our Children Deserve Better’: First Lady Jill Biden Speaks Out After Six Die in Nashville School Mass Shooting

“While the focus of Mr. Pecker’s testimony is unclear, he could provide valuable information for prosecutors. A longtime ally of Mr. Trump, he agreed to keep an eye out for potentially damaging stories about Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign,” The Times reports. “For a brief time in October 2016, Ms. Daniels appeared to have just that kind of story. Her agent and lawyer discussed the possibility of selling exclusive rights to her story of a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump to The National Enquirer, which would then promise to never publish it, a practice known as ‘catch and kill.'”

Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman weighed in, noting, “nothing about that decision [to have Pecker testify] suggests any change of heart on Bragg’s part to indict Trump.”

Former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, an NYU professor of law, notes that Pecker’s “testimony can show the [hush money] scheme was designed to affect outcome of election.”

“He reportedly communicated directly with Trump on payment,” Goodman adds.

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News

‘Our Children Deserve Better’: First Lady Jill Biden Speaks Out After Six Die in Nashville School Mass Shooting

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First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, speaking Monday afternoon at a National League of Cities conference, told attendees, “Our children deserve better,” as she broke the news of the Nashville school mass shooting at Covenant Presbyterian School where three children and three adults were shot dead.

“You know,” Dr. Biden, herself an educator and clearly pained by the news, began her remarks by saying, “I hate to say what I’m gonna say next because you know you’re so enthusiastic and with so much energy and hope and I feel it.”

“But while you’ve been in this room, I don’t know whether you’ve been on your phones but we just learned about another shooting in Tennessee, a school shooting and I am truly without words and our children deserve better, and we stand – all of us – we stand with Nashville in prayer.”

READ MORE: New WSJ Poll Is Devastating for DeSantis and His ‘Anti-Woke’ Policies

The First Lady, a former public high school English teacher and currently a professor of English at a community college, was speaking at the organization’s Congressional City Conference.

Watch Dr. Biden below or at this link.

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BREAKING NEWS

Death Toll Rises to Six as Three Children and Three Adults Declared Dead In Covenant School Mass Shooting (Streaming Video)

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Six people have now died after a shooter shot and killed three young children and three adults at The Covenant Presbyterian School, a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee. Police say the shooter was a 28-year old woman who had two assault rifles and a handgun.

WSMV announced the rise in deaths on-air, noting that the shooter is also dead. A police spokesperson later increased the announced death toll from five to six. Including the shooter the death toll is seven.

Live streaming video via CBS News below.

This article has been updated with additional video.

1:56 PM ET: Updated to change age of shooter based on new reporting from WSMV.

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