and Afghanistan, but voted in favor of the bill anyway, becoming one of eight Republicans who backed the final repeal bill. Burr supported a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but in 2013 said that he believed the law on same-sex marriage should be left to the states. In 2013, he voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill to extend federal employment discrimination protections to LGBT persons. In 2015, Burr was one of 11 Senate Republicans to vote in favor of allowing same-sex spouses to have access to federal Social Security and veterans' benefits. Burr thinks that bathroom access should be regulated by sex listed on birth certificates, but has also sought to distance himself from H.B. 2, North Carolina's controversial "bathroom legislation." Burr voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in 2013. Burr voted against earmarking money to reduce teen pregnancy (via a requirement that health insurers have equitable birth control coverage, increased funding for family planning services, and funding for education programs that teaches vulnerable teens about contraceptives). He has stated he supports giving employers the right to restrict access to birth control coverage of employees if it is for moral reasons. In December 2018, Burr was one of 12 Republican senators to vote against the cloture motion on the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform measure altering federal sentencing laws, but ultimately voted for the law. Judiciary In 2016, Burr and other Republican Senators opposed holding hearings on President Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to a vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States, and refused to have a customary meeting with Garland. He said that if Hillary Clinton were elected president, he would try to block her from ever filling the vacancy, saying that if Clinton won, "I am going to do everything I can do to make sure four years from now, we still got an opening on the Supreme Court." Burr voted to confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, issuing a statement in favor of Kavanaugh's nomination two days before the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her while in high school, and indicating he would support Kavanaugh's confirmation regardless of the hearing. In 2016, Burr blocked consideration of Patricia Timmons-Goodson's nomination to fill a vacancy on U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina; Obama nominated Timmons-Goodson to