Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is unimpressed with Senate Democrats’ attempts to apply religious tests to Roman Catholic judicial nominees.
That Thomas is saying anything at all on the subject is notable given his reputation for being tight-lipped.
“I thought we got away from religious tests,” Thomas remarked this year during Pepperdine University School of Law’s annual banquet. He was referring to Article VI of the Constitution, which states that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
Thomas’ comments, which were flagged first by the Daily Caller, came in response to being asked specifically about a moment in 2017 when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told Judge Amy Coney Barrett that the “dogma lives loudly within you,” suggesting she was just too Catholic to be a federal judge.
“When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you,” the California senator said. “And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for, for years in this country.”
Thomas said these supposed fears are bunk.
“I don’t think I know a single judge who has allowed religion to interfere with their jobs,” Thomas, himself a Roman Catholic, said at the Pepperdine banquet. “I think if you start the day on your knees, you approach your job differently from when you start thinking that someone anointed you to impose your will on others.”
Feinstein is not alone in winking at the know-nothing idea that Catholics are too compromised to serve on the courts. In December 2018, for example, Sens. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., suggested attorney Brian Buescher is unfit to serve as a federal judge on account of his membership in an “extreme” Catholic organization: the Knights of Columbus.
“The Knights of Columbus has taken a number of extreme positions,” Hirono claimed of the 137-year-old charitable group.
Harris, for her part, asked of the Catholic attorney: “Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?” and, “Have you ever, in any way, assisted with or contributed to advocacy against women’s reproductive rights?” and, “Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality when you joined the organization?”
Just so we are all on the same page: The Knights do not profess anything that is not already Church doctrine. They’re in probably every parish in the U.S. They’re not some crazy sect. The Knights are pro-life and pro-traditional marriage. This is not al Qaeda we are talking about.
Further, as my Washington Examiner colleague Quin Hillyer notes, Feinstein, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have been using anti-Catholic insinuations and innuendo since at least the early 2000s, back when Judge William Pryor was first being considered for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Senate Democrats are no strangers to suggesting Catholics are unfit to serve on the courts. It was only a matter of time before some of the higher profile Catholic judges voiced their dissent.
