President Trump's 7th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Amy Coney Barrett emphatically told the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearing Wednesday that she would not let her Catholic faith influence her court decisions.
Senator after senator proved they didn't hear her, or at least didn't care to. Dick Durbin (D-IL) was one a few Democrats obsessed over the language in speeches and articles Barrett has written about religion and public life.
“Are you an orthodox Catholic?” he asked her, clearly concerned she would isolate Catholics who are pro-abortion.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) had by far the most inappropriate line of questioning, however.
WATCH: Sen. Feinstein to appeals court nominee Amy Barrett, @NotreDame law prof/#Catholic mother of 7: "The dogma lives loudly within you." pic.twitter.com/mpDgNZGRsa
— Jason Calvi (@JasonCalvi) September 6, 2017
Feinstein has put judicial nominees on the spot before over their faith. For example, she had no problem grilling now Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Worried that he would upend abortion rights, she informed him that Roe v. Wade is "super precedent."
He, too, had to explain himself several times that the only guiding force for his judicial decisions would be the Constitution - no matter how controversial the issue is.
Feinstein has once again gotten away with her rude religious litmus tests. Would that be the case if Barrett was of a different faith?
Try to imagine the reaction to this comment in the context of any other religion and federal post. A Muslim at CIA, say. Or a Jew at the Fed https://t.co/4Onv62KlNO
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) September 6, 2017
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