"[2] On June 28, 2019, it was reported that Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, was involved with the planning of the commission.
[3] On July 7, 2019, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal explaining the commission's intended focus.
[17] Walter Russell Mead, founder of center-left think tank New America, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the commission's report was "a thoughtful and carefully reasoned document that may serve as an important landmark in future debates".
"[19] The board added that "Mr. Pompeo’s initiative is not the coded theocratic or authoritarian document of his critics’ partisan imaginations", but instead "a sensible effort to put American human-rights diplomacy on a more sustainable footing.
[22] Joanne Lin, national director of advocacy and government affairs at the human rights organization Amnesty International USA, says that this commission "appears to be an attempt to further hateful policies aimed at women and LGBTQ people.
[24] On June 12, 2019, Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Chris Coons (D-Del.)
wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to "express our deep concern with the process and intent behind the Department of State’s recently announced Commission on Unalienable Rights...With deep reservations about the commission, we request that you not take any further action regarding its membership or proposed operations without first consulting with congressional oversight and appropriations committees.
"[33] After the release of the commission's final report, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Rori Kramer criticized the commission and in an interview with The Guardian, saying that "[f]rom day one when Pompeo announced this, the intention was always to change the actual working policy of the department to fit his narrow religious views in a way that really upends the normal working order of the department.
"[34] Miguel H. Díaz, former United States Ambassador to the Holy See joined by 125 Catholic theologians and leaders, signed a public petition which, among other things, expresses concern that the commission's composition indicated that it was poised to lead to policies that will "harm people who are already vulnerable, especially poor women, children, LGBTI people, immigrants, refugees, and those in need of reproductive health services.
[38] Gerald L. Neuman[39] and Katharine Young[40] also published more extensive academic contributions in connection with the report and related topics.