Conservative Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett Endorses Bacon Marriage

 

Republican Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett is best regarded as the “tweeting judge,” with more than 16,000 tweets and followers to his name. And while it’s the United States Supreme Court that’s currently hearing arguments on gay marriage, the conservative judge took to Twitter late last night with a mocking stance on the subject. Bacon was involved.

The hot topic’s one the justice should know to avoid, per a 2014 profile in The New York Times:

Of course, no one who uses Twitter needs to be reminded of the perils of a misguided tweet. In a phone interview, Justice Willett acknowledged the risks of high-speed, low-character-count dispatches. While on Twitter and Facebook, where he also maintains a public profile, he said he avoids partisan commentary and any legal issues that might come before him. “My political consultant said I’m the only client of his that he does not worry about,” he said.

The main reason for his online presence, he said, is a practical one: staying connected to voters. Texas state judges are elected, and State Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms. Justice Willett, who was first appointed to the court by Gov. Rick Perry in 2005, has won two elections since and will be on the ballot again in 2018. He calls it “political malpractice” not to make use of social media.

Willett was reelected in 2012 with 78.8% of the vote, which might give the state’s gay plaintiffs something to worry about for the next few years, as the Dallas Observer noted following his most recent reelection:

They would also learn that James C. Dobson, the evangelical heir to Billy Graham and founder of Focus on the Family — a man who doesn’t much care for gays or their right to equal protection under the law — endorses him as “the most conservative justice on the Texas Supreme Court. Tea Party patriots, pro-life and pro-family conservatives, limited-government advocates, constitutionalists and any who value American liberty should support Justice Don Willett,”

So, plaintiffs who happen to be gay, liberal or pro-choice might not be blamed for wondering whether Willett‘s ideologies will preclude a fair hearing.

Of course Willett‘s opinion on marriage may have evolved over a particularly potent bacon cheeseburger Smokeshack, as Shake Shack was on the brain just an hour earlier.

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