Leonard Steven Grasz – Photo: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, via YouTube.
The U.S. Senate has confirmed a Trump judicial nominee with a history of anti-LGBTQ animus who received a unanimous “Not Qualified” rating by the American Bar Association.
Senators voted along party lines, 50-48, with two abstaining, thereby confirming Leonard Steven Grasz, the former director of the board of the anti-gay Nebraska Family Alliance, as a justice on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Despite concerns raised by Democrats and LGBTQ advocates about his apparent lack of qualifications, his past anti-LGBTQ advocacy, a personal bias rooted in religious beliefs, and his inability to impartially judge cases on their merits, Grasz’s nomination was approved with seeming little resistance.
Grasz’s defenders have claimed that the ABA rating was motivated by partisan hatred, despite the fact that other objectionable Trump nominees — whatever their shortcomings — were rated “Qualified” or higher by the ABA.
Critics also pointed to his work at the Nebraska Family Alliance opposing the recognition of same-sex marriage, attempting to deny same-sex couples benefits, opposing efforts to ban anti-LGBTQ discrimination, and advocacy for religious exemptions for business owners opposed to homosexuality as evidence of what they felt was his inability to impartially deal with cases involving LGBTQ plaintiffs or defendants.
“We are deeply disappointed that Senate Republicans have voted to confirm a nominee who is clearly unfit to serve as a federal judge,” David Stacy, the government affairs director at the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “Grasz’s confirmation is in line with the Trump-Pence administration’s alarming trend of advancing under-qualified nominees with terrible anti-equality records. This radical ideological transformation of our justice system will lead to long-term, harmful consequences that will live well beyond the Trump-Pence administration.”
Vanita Gupta, the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights — who previously served as the head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division — excoriated Republicans for “rubber stamping” Grasz’s nomination and allowing “an extreme and highly troubling” nominee to be confirmed.
The Leadership Conference previously sent a letter to senators urging them not to confirm Grasz, arguing that he is not qualified to be a judge.
“Mr. Grasz is only the fourth nominee since 1989 to receive a unanimous Not Qualified rating from the American Bar Association,” Gupta said in a statement. “This rating was based on the nominee’s local reputation for bias, lack of open-mindedness, and offensive demeanor. A person with those qualities should not serve a lifetime appointment on the federal bench.”
"I was always for IVF. Right from the beginning, as soon as we heard about it.… We’re doing this because we just think it’s great. And we need great children, beautiful children in our country, we actually need them," President Donald Trump said in an August 2024 NBC News interview as he mounted his reelection bid.
He pledged to support free in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, a promise that came just months after the Alabama Supreme Court controversially ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF should be considered "children" under state law.
Andry José Hernández Romero, deported in Trump’s immigration crackdown, was freed from El Salvador’s CECOT prison in a prisoner swap but still faces danger.
Gay asylum seeker Andry José Hernández Romero, a makeup artist and costume designer deported to El Salvador’s notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) maximum-security prison, was released on July 18 as part of a prisoner swap, NBC News reported.
The swap was brokered by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, who agreed to free more than 200 Venezuelans from CECOT in exchange for Venezuela releasing 10 American political prisoners.
Most released detainees had been deported from the U.S. after Trump invoked the rarely used Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify removing hundreds of undocumented immigrants, alleging ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which constituted an "invading force" whose members were committing serious crimes.
In March 2022, Justine Lindsay made history as the NFL’s first openly transgender cheerleader. Three seasons later, the Carolina Panthers TopCat is stepping away from the squad to pursue pageantry and community outreach.
In a statement to Outsports, Lindsay said she wanted to grow beyond the sidelines, striving to be “recognized not just as an NFL cheerleader, but as someone making a positive impact, especially during these uncertain times.”
The announcement marks a reversal, as some news outlets had previously reported she would return for the 2025–2026 season.
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