Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Religion and Judicial Nominations:
[1]Cathy Young writes:
On April 24, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is set, at the time
of this writing, to participate in a "Justice Sunday" telecast at
which America's most prominent evangelical leaders will lambaste
the Democrats who are blocking conservative Bush nominees for
federal judicial posts. A flier for the event, organized by the
Family Research Council, decries "the filibuster against people of
faith," accusing Democrats of an anti-religious bigotry comparable
to "racial bias." . . .
This is not the first time Republicans have made this charge. Two
years ago, Senate Democrats blocked the nomination of Alabama
Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr., an orthodox Catholic with
strong antiabortion views who had described Roe v. Wade as an
"abomination," to the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
Conservative activists complained of anti-Christian bigotry and ran
an ad showing a "Catholics need not apply" sign over a courthouse
door.
Of course, the issue isn't simply "faith," but a nominee's views on
public policy issues. A pro-abortion-rights litmus test for federal
judges may be wrong, but it's preposterous to claim, as some
conservatives have, that it amounts to a religious test that
disqualifies "serious" Catholics and evangelical Protestants from
public office. Surely, it would apply just as much to atheists or
agnostics who oppose abortion on secular grounds.
What if the issue was not abortion? Let's say that a Democratic
president had nominated to the federal bench a judge known for
passionate, Christian-based hostility to capital punishment. Would
it be "anti-Christian" for Republicans to oppose the nomination? To
take an even more ridiculous example: Would it be "religious
bigotry" to oppose the presidential candidacy of a devout Quaker
who declared that his policies would be rooted in his religious
belief that all use of military force is wrong? . . .
Young's analysis strikes me as quite right. One can plausibly fault
the Senate Democrats' opposition to the President's judicial nominees
on various grounds, but "religious bigotry" is not one of them. As
best I can tell, the Senators care about the nominee's politics,
ideology on contested legal questions, and likely future votes on such
questions, not about the nominee's religion.
Of course, there may well be a correlation between certain political
or judicial views and religion. But as Young's examples show, this
doesn't turn political and ideological hostility -- whether that
hostility is justified or excessive -- into religious bigotry.
References
1.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/04/25/an_ugly_new_chapter_in_the_religious_wars/
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://highsorcery.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
