President Donald Trump’s judicial nomination of Amy Barrett has become a religious-liberty flashpoint in recent weeks, with Democratic senators arguing that her conservative Catholicism would interfere with her ability to uphold the law. Sen. Jeff Flake defended Barrett on the Senate floor Monday evening, arguing against what he said amounted to an unconstitutional religious test.

“It is religious liberty that is threatened when we seem to evaluate the fitness of nominees for high office on religious orthodoxy,” said Flake, an outspoken Mormon. “While it’s remarkable that I need to say this in 2017, it bears repeating: A Roman Catholic can be a faithful steward of the law. So can an Episcopalian, so can a Mormon, so can a Muslim, or so can an atheist.”