Posted on 07/02/2005 10:43:01 AM PDT by wagglebee
With the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor, key Senate leaders are being urged to keep "anti-religious bigotry" out of the upcoming confirmation hearings.
The Catholic-based group Fidelis issued a warning to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and Ranking Member Patrick Leahy to "prevent this vile brand of hate politics from entering this important process."
"We expect that the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings must follow nothing less than the three-fold high standard of being responsible, civil and constitutional," said Fidelis President Joseph Cella. "The statements by every senator -- Republican, Democrat or Independent -- about the nominee will be watched, and if the line is crossed by attacking a nominee because of their religious faith or deeply-held beliefs, they will be held accountable."
Fidelis said it maintains a tracking mechanism for such statements by senators and will broadcast them to the public in a variety of ways.
Cella said his group will be paying particularly close attention to Sens. Kennedy, Schumer, Feinstein, Durbin and Feingold, who vilified Bush appeals court nominee William Pryor for having "deeply-held" religious beliefs.
"Mocking any nominee for living their beliefs, and abusing them with sharp rhetoric will not go unanswered," Cella said. "We also warn Senators Landrieu, Chaffee, Nelson [Fla.], Snowe, Stabenow, Collins, and Johnson to not 'Pryor' any nominee."
Yesterday, Fidelis launched an advertising campaign in the run-up to the confirmation hearings. The initial round of ads, beginning in Washington, D.C., cites the role that anti-religious bigotry has played in recent Senate confirmation battles.
The full-page newspaper ad in Roll Call highlights "religiously intolerant remarks" by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and calls on him to keep religion out of future Supreme Court confirmation hearings. The second round of advertising begins next week in Nevada.
Cella said: "A judicial candidate promising to soundly interpret the Constitution is not enough for many senators. In order to disqualify a particular judicial candidate, some Senators have resorted to a quasi-inquisition of a candidates personal religious beliefs, and that cannot be tolerated."
We already know that unless you support abortion the Demos will oppose you. That is their litmus test.
Therefore, by their test, no practicing Roman Catholic, Orthodox Jew, or convervative Evangelical can ever
be permitted to serve on the federal bench.
Period.
(Ask Teddy Kennedy, brother of the first Catholic president, why he wants to bar Catholics from federal judicial office. That's irony for you. . .)
Then the Dems will reveal themselves even more to everybody as to who exactly they really are.
Well I for one am offended by this anti-anti-religious bigotry, bigotry. Someone get me a lawyer.
"Therefore, by their test, no practicing Roman Catholic, Orthodox Jew, or convervative Evangelical can ever
be permitted to serve on the federal bench."
This point needs to be made on the floor of the Senate.
Actually, I hope they do inject anti-religious bigotry into the hearings. It will show their true natures to the public and backfire in their faces. Many people who supported Kerry & Gore did so out of ignorance.
Abortion and perversion are non-negotiable for the Democrats. By the time he had been in office for eight years, clinton went back on every other commitment he ever made, but he kept those two commitments, so his backers continued to support him through thick and thin. He could rape, murder, and steal, bomb cities or reform welfare, as long as he supported their precious abortion rights.
This is where the irresistible force meets the immovable object, because abortion is non-negotiable for us, too. A free society cannot be founded on baby killing, however convenient that may be to some of its more selfish members.
IMHO, this is gonna be the nastiest, most vile, ugly political fight the country has ever seen.
I couldn't agree more!
Get the f*ck out of here troll!
It indeed may be a period of religious bigotry.
Yes. For today Democrats abortion and "gay marriage" are much more important that all the traditional issues of New Deal together. That is why Reagan Democrats vote Republican.
I agree.
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