Members of Bogren's law firm, Plunkett Cooney, wrote a letter (full text) on June 7 strongly defending Bogren, saying that criticism of him is misinformed. Michigan's two Democratic Senators supported Bogren. But Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, one of Bogren's chief critics, argued: "He could have given a vigorous defense to his client without stooping to calling this Catholic family equivalent to members of the KKK, comparing them to radical Islamic jihadists."
Thursday, June 13, 2019
District Court Nominee Withdraws Amid Controversy Over Brief In 1st Amendment Case
The Hill and the Kansas City Star report that Michael Bogren, a Trump judicial nominee for a seat on the federal district court for the Western District of Michigan, has withdrawn himself from consideration amid claims that he is anti-Catholic. Three Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee indicated their opposition to Bogren because of a brief he filed in a 2017 case defending the City of East Lansing. Vendor Guidelines for East Lansing's Farmers' Market required vendors to comply with the civil rights ordinance as a general business practice. The Catholic owner of Country Mill Farms was denied a vendor permit because, while the Farm hosts weddings at its orchard, it refuses on religious grounds to host same-sex weddings. (See prior posting.) In the brief, Bogren argued that the First Amendment does not create an exception for discrimination based on religious beliefs any more than it does for a member of the Ku Klux Klan refusing to serve African Americans.
