On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Catherine Lhamon as assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education after Vice President Kamala Harris cast her tie-breaking 50-50 vote. Lhamon had already served in the position during the Obama administration and later as chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, during which she earned pushback from critics who believe she was an extremist on religious liberty and LGBT issues.
According to the Christian Headlines, Lhamon once wrote a letter accusing public schools of violating federal law in the event they prohibited students from using the restroom or locker room that matched their gender identity. The Obama legislation allowed biological males who identify as females to use the biological girls' restrooms. Public schools would then be considered violators of the federal law if they prevented transgender-identifying students from participating in gender-specific sports team of their choosing.
"A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so," the far-left Biden nominee wrote at the time. Lhamon was also famously known to be slow to approve and resisted exception requests by religious educational institutions that wanted to uphold their sincerely held religious beliefs on LGBT and gender issues.
"During her time in this position under the Obama administration, Ms. Lhamon led the charge on policies that allowed males to enter girls' private spaces, violated the free speech and due process rights of students, and encouraged harassment of religious schools," Alliance Defending Freedom General Counsel Kristen Waggoner said in a statement in response to Lhamon's appointment, The Federalist reported.
Waggoner added that ADF will be "watching closely" Lhamon's actions to determine if she "or any government official, attacks the fundamental freedoms of students and religious schools."
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona on the other hand, had nothing but praises for the far-left Biden nominee known for attacking religious liberty. He remarked in a statement that his department "gained a champion" and that he was "thrilled" to have her back in his agency. Cardona, who called Lhamon "one of the strongest civil rights leaders in America," promised that she "will lead the Department's vital efforts to ensure our schools and college campuses are free from discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and disability and to protect all students' civil rights in education."
This is not the first time Vice President Harris has broken a tie vote in the Senate. According to Politico, Harris' casting of a vote for Lhamon on Wednesday was the 11th time she broke a tie vote since she took office earlier this year. This appears to be a marathon compared to the previous two U.S. Vice Presidents. Former VP Mike Pence broke 13 ties in his entire four-year tenure, while former VP Joe Biden never broke a tie while serving as ex-President Barack Obama's vice president.
