The Senate confirmed Allison Jones Rushing to the 4th U.S. District Court of Appeals, making the 37-year-old one of the youngest federal judges in history.

Rushing's qualifications were questioned, but her greatest sin was her association with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a public interest law firm that has opposed redefining marriage on religious freedom grounds and defended businesses and individuals who ran afoul of the various local and state gay rights statutes.

Rushing never worked for ADF but did intern with the group in 2005.  Do you think that stopped her detractors from trying to smear her as a hateful bigot and ADF as a "hate group"?

NBCNews:

"Throughout her brief legal career, Allison Rushing has supported and closely associated herself with one of the most extreme anti-LGBT organizations operating in this country today, the Alliance Defending Freedom," Ian Wilhite, a spokesperson for LGBTQ legal group Lambda Legal, said in a statement shared with NBC News.  "Rather than disqualifying her from consideration, this aspect of her record seems to have made up for all of the other deficiencies in her record."

The 4th Circuit Court, which sits one level below the Supreme Court, covers West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas.  Lambda Legal estimates there are roughly 1 million LGBTQ people who live in those states.

ADF's mission is to defend their conception of religious freedom and free speech.  Other public interest law firms defend their conception of "women's rights" or "civil rights."  The ADF holds views on gays and marriage that are at odds with the LGBT community but faithful to their own interpretation of the Constitution.

The designation of ADF as a "hate group" is spurious. It is one group's — the Southern Poverty Law Center — definition of "hate group," wildly biased and hardly objective.  This is a political construct bearing no relationship whatsoever with the reality that ADF's activities center on protecting businesses and individuals from what they see as discrimination on religious freedom grounds.  And they have been successful at it, recently winning a big victory for a Colorado baker who was being persecuted for his opposition to redefining marriage and "gender transition."

You can disagree with their interpretation of the law, but it's grotesque to smear them as a "hate group." 

That said, Rushing's association with the ADF was limited.

While Rushing does not hold an official role with the ADF, she interned for the group as a law student in the summer of 2005, authored amicus briefs for clients in support of the ADF's positions on at least three cases, co-authored a legal brief about religious liberties with an ADF attorney, and spoke at ADF events at least once a year from 2012 to 2017.

Is that really enough to disqualify her from serving?  The bottom line is that Democrats and their radical culture warriors despise the notion that anyone can disagree with them and not be a "hater."  Their routine smearing of Christians who disagree with them about marriage and some aspects of gay rights has nothing to do with the law and everything to do with politics.