Matthew J. Kacsmaryk

Kacsmaryk received his Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from Abilene Christian University in 1999 and his Juris Doctor with honors from the University of Texas School of Law in 2003.[1]

From 2003 to 2008, he was an associate in the Dallas office of Baker Botts, where he focused on commercial, constitutional, and intellectual property litigation. From 2008 through 2013, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney (federal prosecutor) in the Northern District of Texas.[1] He was part of the team that prosecuted Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, a Saudi student at Texas Tech who was convicted in 2012 of attempting to build an improvised explosive device.[2] In 2013, Attorney General Eric Holder awarded Kacsmaryk the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Furthering U.S. National Security.[1][3] He formerly served as Deputy General Counsel to First Liberty Institute, a conservative religious freedom legal advocacy group.[4] He has been a member of the Fort Worth chapter of the Federalist Society since 2012.[5]

On September 7, 2017, President Trump nominated Kacsmaryk to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, to the seat vacated by Judge Mary Lou Robinson, who assumed senior status on February 3, 2016.[6] On December 13, 2017, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[7] On January 3, 2018, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate.[8] On January 5, 2018, President Trump announced his intent to renominate Kacsmaryk to a federal judgeship.[9] On January 8, 2018, his renomination was sent to the Senate.[10] On January 18, 2018, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–10 vote.[11]

The American Bar Association rated Kacsmaryk qualified for the nomination, unanimously.[12] However, Senate Democrats and a number of LGBT advocacy groups opposed his nomination due to his writings and comments on LGBT rights and women's contraceptive rights.[13][14] He has worked on religious liberty cases opposing certain LGBT protections in housing, employment and health care.[15] In 2016, he referred to being transgender as a "delusion" and a "mental disorder".[15] He opposes the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the United States.[15] He has referred to homosexuality as "disordered".[16]

On January 3, 2019, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate. On January 23, 2019, President Trump announced his intent to renominate Kacsmaryk for a federal judgeship.[17] His nomination was sent to the Senate later that day.[18] On February 7, 2019, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote.[19] On June 18, 2019, the Senate voted 52–44 to invoke cloture on his nomination.[20] On June 19, 2019, his nomination was confirmed by a vote of 52–46.[4][16] He received his judicial commission on June 21, 2019.

Judge Kacsmaryk currently presides over the Amarillo Division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, which encompasses twenty-six counties in the Texas Panhandle. He succeeds the late Judge Mary Lou Robinson, who served as an active district judge in Amarillo from 1979 until her passing in 2016.[21]

• Donald Trump judicial appointment controversies

• Matthew J. Kacsmaryk at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Matthew Kacsmaryk at Ballotpedia