Trump district court nominee calls same-sex ‘marriage’ an ‘assault on nature’
President Trump is under fire from liberal and LGBT groups for nominating a man to the federal bench who has said same-sex marriage undermines the “very idea of marriage” and is part of an “assault on nature” that began with contraception.
Gordon Giampietro, nominated for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, is currently an assistant general counsel of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, whose past statements in various forums have raised the ire of progressives and, in particular, the LGBT community.
“No one would disagree with the fact that children, all the social science research shows this, are best raised by a man and a woman,” Giampietro said in an interview on a Catholic radio show. “This is natural, this is the truth, and it’s irrefutable. And so I think it has to be articulated in a way which isn’t dismissive of those troubled relationships, but it is reaffirming of the truth of marriage.”
Giampietro also has warned that legalization of same-sex marriage will lead to legalization of polygamy. “Given this constitutional principle that the court has laid down, there really is no principled reason to say that polygamy isn’t the next thing to go.”
He has also criticized Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, author of the majority opinion in the Obergefell case that legalized same-sex marriage nationally, suggesting that Kennedy didn’t use “legal reasoning” in arriving at his conclusion and that the Supreme Court Justice “went off the rails years ago” with the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision, striking down sodomy laws.
In the same interview, Giampietro agreed that many of the challenges the country now faces can be traced to the widespread use of contraceptive pills.
“Because that’s an assault on nature,” he told host Lydia Lococo. “And any time you assault nature there’s going to be a backlash. And that’s what we’re seeing today. In all kinds of ways, not just with respect to contraception and marriage. Whenever you go against God’s plan, bad things are going to happen.”
“Gordon’s civil and criminal trial work for more than 20 years in the same court he has been nominated to serve, both in private practice and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, will make him a valuable asset to the Eastern District,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement. “In nominating Gordon Giampietro to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, President Trump has continued his strong record of selecting well-qualified judicial nominees committed to constitutional principles and upholding the rule of law.”
A statement issued by the White House offers a glimpse into Giampietro’s professional qualifications:
Gordon Giampietro is an assistant general counsel of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Prior to joining Northwestern Mutual, Mr. Giampietro spent 13 years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Before joining the United States Attorney’s Office, Mr. Giampietro was a partner in the Milwaukee law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, where his practice focused on civil and commercial litigation. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Giampietro served for three years as a law clerk to Judge Rudolph T. Randa of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Mr. Giampietro earned his B.A. with high honors in philosophy and his J.D. from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
According to various gay news sites, nearly one-third of President Trump’s judicial nominees are perceived to be “anti-LGBT.”
“The record speed with which President Trump is reshaping the courts, coupled with the staggeringly high number of judges with anti-LGBT records whom he has nominated for lifetime appointments,” asserts pro-LGBT Lambda Legal. The organization worries that because these are lifetime judicial appointments, the courts will be reshaped for years to come, “triggering a growing judicial crisis for LGBT people.”
