Becerra’s most infamous battle is against the Little Sisters of the Poor. Becerra claimed they should not be exempted from the Affordable Healthcare Act’s contraceptive mandate.
President-elect Joe Biden intends to appoint Democrat Xavier Becerra, California's Attorney General, to the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
For Republicans and even for moderate Democrats, the news should surprise and disappoint: Becerra is one of the most zealously litigious, culture-war-inducing, far-left progressives to occupy public office. If you thought Biden was going to be a moderate President, this might be Exhibit A that he's appointed far more progressive people to carry out a more liberal term on his behalf.
Strangely, Becerra's appointment is being reported nonchalantly by much of the media. NPR said he was a "high-profile Latino," as if a Hispanic identity was enough to negate any real noteworthy news the public might want to know.
That's unfortunate, because Becerra's record of aggressive, stupid, and bad, lawsuits is widely known. In fact, it would be difficult to find a man who loathes the First Amendment and any center-right agenda remotely related to the Constitution or the culture—bonus if the two intersect, as they often do—more.
Fox News said Becerra "has been one of the most litigious attorneys general against the president in recent years, actively pursuing progressive policies in the courts more than perhaps any other attorney general." It's true. As the Attorney General of California, Becerra used his post to challenge "federal rules on religious exemptions to providing contraceptives for employees, rules on international students and online classes, the environment, immigration and more."
Becerra sued Trump over 100 times—the Sacramento Bee reported those lawsuits cost upwards of $43 million. He even bragged about his litigiousness in a tweet saying, "And while we don't go looking for a fight, we're prepared to act when the people, resources, and values of California are at stake."
With the NEPA lawsuit, we have sued @RealDonaldTrump 100 times.
?And while we don’t go looking for a fight, we’re prepared to act when the people, resources, and values of California are at stake. pic.twitter.com/fweBVxFQv2
— Attorney General Becerra (@AGBecerra)
Becerra doesn't just fight culture battles. Like Saul before his conversion to the apostle Paul, he hunts minorities in the culture war down—Christians, pro-life advocates, God-fearing nuns—and he zealously tries to slaughter them on his turf in the court of law, burning up resources as he goes.
Becerra is rabidly pro-abortion. When he was in Congress, he voted against a ban on partial-birth abortions and supported taxpayer-funded abortions. In 2017, Becerra went after David Daleiden, the mastermind behind the videos that exposed Planned Parenthood's criminal activities, selling aborted fetal tissue for profit, which successfully prompted multiple investigations via the FBI, Department of Justice, and more.
Becerra charged Daleiden with 15 felonies including undercover video work Daleiden has had to spend time and resources fighting him in court.
In 2018, Becerra went to the Supreme Court arguing in NIFLA v. Becerra, that the state of California could force pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise for abortion. In what turned out to be a landmark free speech case, Becerra lost.
Becerra's most infamous battle is against the Little Sisters of the Poor. That's right. Nuns. In his lawsuit against the Sisters, Becerra claimed they should not be exempted from the Affordable Healthcare Act's contraceptive mandate. It's truly one of the most asinine cases to ever work its way to the Supreme Court. Literally no one receives contraceptives from nuns and nuns shouldn't be forced to offer something that goes directly against their deeply held religious beliefs—the First Amendment protects this.
This summer, the Supreme Court found in their favor in a related case (against the state of Pennsylvania) and sent Becerra's case back to the lower courts to be dealt with in light of their ruling. Still, the enormous amount of energy and resources it takes to fight a lawsuit at the Supreme Court, for rights already guaranteed by the Constitution, are enormous. Shame on Becerra for stripping those, from nuns of all people, to the bitter end.
The media, much of the Democrat electorate, and even "Never Trump" voters who hated Trump more than they liked Biden, voted for him on the premise that he would be a moderate liberal—nothing too far left. Biden's newest appointment proves this will not be the case.
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