Jeff Mateer, former general counsel for radical Judeo-Christian group the First Liberty Institution, resigned from his position as First Assistant Attorney General of Texas earlier this month.
During his four year tenure in the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), Mateer faced heavy criticism and accusations of using his position to push a religious agenda.
Mateer was nominated by the Trump administration to serve as a U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas judge, but the nomination was withdrawn when a 2015 speech drew criticism.
According to media reports cited in an Oct. 3 The Texan article, while discussing a lawsuit against a public school for prohibiting a child to use the bathroom for the opposite sex, Mateer referred to transgender children as "part of Satan's plan" or "Satan's spawn."
The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) called for President Trump to withdrawal the nomination of Mateer in 2017, stating that Mater has expressed opposition to the separation of church and state, dismisses contraception and abortion rights for women and is interested in overturning key cases that safeguard LGBTQ+ and women's rights.
"Mr. Mateer has expressed a desire to overturn long-settled precedent, including Roe v. Wade, and recent cases that have upheld LGBTQ rights, such as Obergefell v. Hodges and Lawrence v. Texas," said FFRF in its statement to the president. "This shows a disregard for stare decisis that cannot be given voice on the federal bench."
According to the FFRF, in a reported blog post to his wife's website, Mateer said that Americans "promote a culture of death" through the long-lasted support of Roe v. Wade, and also told a group of ministers that homosexuality is "sinful conduct" and "an elephant in the room."
"Mateer is a mediocre lawyer with no judicial experience who did not get his job with the Texas Attorney General’s office on merit," the FFRF said. "The job was not publicly posted, as state law 656.001 requires."
The foundation reported that Mateer was nominated rather than hired from a pool of qualified candidates by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
"Instead, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – who is under indictment for multiple counts of felony fraud – simply appointed Mateer, a move of dubious legality. Paxton is very close with the Institute’s executive director, Kelly Shackelford, and credits him with encouraging Paxton to run for the state House seat he won in 2002. Shackelford and the Institute also supported Paxton when he ran for Texas Attorney General," the statement said.
In September of 2018, Mateer sent a letter to Austin Independent School District threatening legal action against the district for considering barring rental of its Performing Art Center to openly anti-homosexuality church, Celebration Church, which states that marriage should only be between one man and one woman, and bars the marriage of homosexual couples in its chapel, according to an article from Honest Austin.
The former first assistant to the attorney general was hired by the OAG on March 10, 2016. As of July 2020, his annual salary was $265,000, a 28% jump from his $206,483 salary as of September 2019 recorded in the Texas Tribune. Mateer will reportedly return to the First Liberty Institute for future employment, according to The Texan.
