President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Brett Kavanaugh, now a U.S. Supreme Court justice, on the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is refusing to say if she thinks same-sex relationships are a sin.
Neomi Rao, whose past writings have drawn the ire and disgust of top Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been facing difficult questioning Tuesday.
One line of questioning came from Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, who asked her about her views on same-sex relationships.
“Are gay relationships in your view immoral?” Senator Booker asked Rao.
“Senator, I’m not sure the relevance of that,” she replied.
Booker pressed on, saying the question was just as relevant as if she felt African-American relationships are immoral.
“No, I do not,” she replied.
“Do you believe they’re a sin?” He asked further.
“Senator, my personal views on any of these subjects are things I would put on one side,” Rao replied.
“So you’re not willing to say here that whether you believe it is sinful for two men to be married, you’re not willing to comment on that?
“You know, Senator. No,” Rao replied.
Watch:
Rao’s nomination hearing has been widely anticipated, given her past writings.
“Critics have seized on her college writings in which she criticized affirmative action, suggested that intoxicated women were partly responsible for date rape and said LGBT rights were part of a ‘trendy’ political movement,” CBS News reports. “The 1995 Yale graduate also faulted environmental groups that ‘accept issues such as global warming as truth with no reference to the prevailing scientific doubts.'”
Thanks to Vox’s Aaron Rupar for posting the video.