One thing became crystal last week when the Bland Inquisitors of the House Judiciary Committee finally got their hands on former Justice Department official Monica Goodling. Many among the inquisitors expected Goodling to hand them incriminating evidence that the evil one — Karl Rove — was behind the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Instead, Goodling’s appearance became the occasion for exposing an insidious but growing strain of religious intolerance in American public policy.
Consider the tenor of the questions put to Goodling by Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn.:
Cohen: The mission of the law school you attended, Regent, is to bring to bear upon legal education and the legal profession the will of almighty God, our creator. What is the will of almighty God, our creator, on the legal profession?
Goodling: I’m not sure that I could define that question for you.
Cohen: Did you ask people who applied for jobs anything about their religion?
Goodling: No, I certainly did not.
Cohen: Ever had religion discussions come up?
Goodling: Not to the best of my recollection. …
Cohen: Are there a lot of — an inordinate number of people from Regent University Law School that were hired by the Department of Justice while you were there?
Goodling: I think we have a lot more people from Harvard and Yale.
Cohen: Well, that’s refreshing. Is it a fact — are you aware of the fact that in your graduating class 50 [percent] to 60 percent of the students failed the bar the first time?
At this point in the hearing, Cohen was hissed and booed by some in the audience and by several GOP members of the committee. Cohen should have been, but was not, ruled out of order. Instead of beating around the bush, Cohen could have saved everybody time by simply asserting his clear view that the Justice Department ought not to hire people like Goodling because Regent offers a sub-par legal education, based in part on Christian beliefs. Apparently, the Tennessee Democrat is unaware that Article VI of the Constitution bans religious tests for holding public office in America.
For the record, as Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., pointed out in response to Cohen, Regent’s law school is fully accredited by the American Bar Association, the school’s students have won the ABA’s National Appellate Advocacy Competition 11 of the previous 14 years and most recently won the ABA’s Negotiation Competition, beating students from 220 other schools, including Harvard.
But then, bigotry is always blind to excellence.
