The Senate confirmed religious freedom lawyer Kyle Duncan as the newest federal judge in a 50-47 vote. Duncan defended EWTN and other Catholic organizations in their religious liberty fight against the Obama administration. Duncan will serve on the 5th Circuit.
At Becket, Duncan served as the lead lawyer in Hobby Lobby’s challenge to the Obamacare contraceptive mandate. He supervised Becket’s representation of an Orthodox Jewish inmate against a prison that violated his rights and a mosque against a discriminatory land-use regulation under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
Duncan has also handled a broad range of other types of cases, noting at his confirmation hearing that he has “had a case on every one of the Bill of Rights except the Third Amendment” (there aren’t many of those) and has handled cases for and against government in the civil and criminal contexts.