Judge who blocked key Trump executive order has long history of left-wing activism, Dem donations
U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Biden appointee who is the first openly gay federal judge in D.C., acknowledged in her Senate questionnaire during her confirmation process that she volunteered for Biden's 2020 campaign "providing limited legal assistance regarding potential election law issues."
Reyes, who assumed office in February 2023, has been donating to Democratic causes to the tune of more than $38,000 since 2008, sending money to liberal efforts such as ActBlue, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossof's campaign, and maxed out contributions to Biden's 2020 presidential campaign, FEC records show.
Additionally, Reyes has been a frequent contributor to Defeat By Tweet, a Democratic-aligned super PAC that supports the Justice Fund, which Influence Watch describes as a group that "raises money for liberal groups in swing states each time President Donald Trump makes a post to his controversial Twitter account."
Defeat By Tweet's website is currently shuttered but says it is "transferring" its resources to Black Church PAC, a group aligned with defunding the police that received at least $150,000 from the Kamala Harris presidential campaign.
Reyes, who was born in Uruguay before her family immigrated to the United States when she was in kindergarten, has been active in representing illegal immigrants in her previous capacity as a lawyer.
During a speech accepting the 2017 Woman's Bar Association of the District of Columbia's Woman Lawyer of the Year award, Reyes said she was "privileged" to represent asylum seekers and thanked lawyers at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, stating it was an honor "fighting for the rights of refugees in the United States."
Reyes said in the same speech that she deferred law school for a year to work for the Feminist Majority Foundation, a group that describes itself as a "cutting edge organization dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health, and non-violence."
Reyes said in her Senate questionnaire in 2023 that she served on the board for the group from "2014-present" although she is not currently listed on the organization's website.
The Feminist Majority Foundation has previously called abortion a "necessity" and opposed in a January press release the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which blocks men from playing in women's sports.
The questionnaire also acknowledges that she was a panelist in a 2021 discussion called "Did You Really Just Say That? Recognizing and Managing Microaggressions." The discussion was hosted by Centerforce, which touts a DEI series that includes several conferences aimed at "address[ing] the obstacles posed by the backlash against DEI initiatives and the consequences of Affirmative Action repeal."
Despite her history of progressive activism, Reyes has sided with Trump in the past, including last April when she berated Biden's Justice Department after two of its employees failed to appear in court for depositions related to the Republican push to impeach Biden, NBC News reported.
Earlier that year, Reyes also called it "an attack on our constitutional democracy" when a former IRS consultant leaked Trump's tax returns.
She also ripped the lawyers of eight inspectors general who were fired by Trump and denied their immediate reinstatement last month, asking, "Why on earth did you not have this figured out with the defendants before coming here?" The lawsuit against the Trump administration is still ongoing.
At issue currently is a Jan. 27 executive order signed by Trump requiring the Defense Department to update its guidance regarding "trans-identifying medical standards for military service" and to "rescind guidance inconsistent with military readiness."
Reyes questioned the Trump administration at length over the order, demanding to know whether it was a "transgender ban" and if the government's position is that being transgender is an "ideology."
Reyes, who previously stated that the idea of only two sexes is not "biologically correct," issued a preliminary injunction this week barring the Pentagon from enforcing Trump's order, which asserted "expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service."
In her 79-page ruling, Reyes in part cites Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical "Hamilton" to justify blocking the ban on transgender troops.
"Women were 'included in the sequel' when passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granted them the right to vote in 1920," Reyes wrote in the footnotes, adding, "That right is one of the many that thousands of transgender persons serve to protect."
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