Republican Sen. John Cornyn Would Be Okay with a Gay Supreme Court Pick. But …

Every time President Obama gets a chance to nominate a new Supreme Court justice (okay, both times), there appears to be some invisible force chipping away at typical GOP stonewalling on the possibility of choosing a gay candidate. When Justice David Souter made his exit last year, Alabama’s Sen. Jeff Sessions said he’d at least keep an open mind about a gay appointee. And now that Justice John Paul Stevens is making his exit, another veteran Republican is coming around.

John Cornyn, the Texas senator on the Judiciary Committee, says he’d “have to think about” a gay nominee, but concludes, “as long as it doesn’t interfere with their job, it’s not a particular issue.” Of course, there is always an escape hatch: The new judge cannot be one of these activist judges legislating from the bench! And of course, with a gay appointee, it’s easy to argue (in their heads) that she would immediately be for same-sex marriage.

“The one litmus test I have is, ‘No ideologues,’” says Cornyn. And even if a gay nominee isn’t an ideologue, it’ll be easy to brand her as such. With some help from AFA, of course.