Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) nearly had a panic attack on the floor of Congress Wednesday when a White House nominee for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals revealed he’d joked on social media about “marrying bacon.”
Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett is a well-known Twitter user who frequently jokes about current events and even legal cases. His social media presence is likely what put him on the White House’s list for such a plum appointment. Willett is also a solid conservative and respected judge who could integrate nicely into a higher-level appeals court.
But Leahy, and his co-panelists Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), were all deeply concerned about Willett’s qualifications because, as it turns out, the judicial nominee once joked, around the time that same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide through the Obergfell decision, that he believed it should be legal to marry bacon.
THE HORROR. THE HORROR.
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According to Leahy, Willett’s tweet expressed a certain flippancy in regards to the Very Serious Question of whether same sex couples should be allowed to marry legally, and, Leahy claimed, the tweet made it evident — somehow — that Willett did not approve of the “settled law” of Obergfell.
“I don’t think one would see that as praising the Supreme Court decisions,” Leahy told the nominee.
Fortunately, Willett was prepared with an answer. “Senator, as for the bacon tweet, that was the day after the Obergfell decision was issued and it was my attempt to inject a bit of levity,” he said. “The country was filled with rancor and polarization. It was a divisive time in the nation.”
Leahy shot back, “And you think that cut back the divisiveness with a comment like that?”
Willett, somehow resisting the urge to answer, quite simply, “yes,” tried to calm Leahy back to a place of sanity. “Senator, I believe every American is entitled to equal worth and dignity,” Willett noted. “I’ve never intended to disparage anyone and would never do so. That’s not where my heart is.”