Yesterday morning, the White House guaranteed that the Trump Administration would keep in place the Obama Administration order protecting some LGBT workers. Then, just mere hours later, President Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch, a man who takes the rule of law far beyond religious freedom to extend to his own personal religious convictions, as the next United States Supreme Court Justice filling the empty seat. Judge Gorsuch has, time and again, ruled on the side of religion to the detriment of civil rights.

In his dissent in American Atheists v. Davenport, Judge Gorsuch not only felt it would be appropriate for a state run agency to erect 12-foot-tall crosses bearing its logo, but went so far as to question whether “the true reasonable observer/endorsement test remains appropriate for assessing Establishment Clause challenges.” This, in addition to his opinion in Hobby Lobby Stores v. Sebelius and his dissent in Green v. Haskell County Board of Commissioners, demonstrates his willingness to extend personal religious beliefs to businesses, agencies, and corporations. Judge Gorsuch moves beyond recognizing an individual’s constitutional religious liberty. Sadly, he places those individuals and their interests above the freedom from religion in the law guaranteed to citizens in the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.

It would be foolish for any observer to believe that the Trump Administration possesses even a modicum of interest in the LGBT community when the President makes appointments such as that of Judge Gorsuch.