Editor's note: This column was originally published on May 4, 2014.

"I'd like to see things like their world view, what informs them. Are they people of faith? Do they have a biblical view of justice?"

— Matt Whitaker, during Iowa Family Leader debate

If elected to the U.S. Senate, former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker says he would only support federal judges who have a Biblical view, and specifically a New Testament view, of justice. "If they have a secular world view, then I'm going to be very concerned about how they judge," Whitaker said at an April 25, 2014, Family Leader debate.

Whitaker didn't return my call to his office, but as a lawyer, one might expect him to know that setting religious conditions for holding a public office would violate the Iowa and U.S. constitutions. He was effectively saying that if elected, he would see no place for a judge of Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, agnostic or other faith, or of no faith. Yet no one in the audience or on the podium seemed to have a problem with that, and his answer drew applause.

The debate venue had something to do with that. The event was sponsored by the Family Leader, the conservative Christian organization that engineered the ouster by voters in 2010 of three Iowa Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage. The moderator, blogger Erick Erickson, asked questions designed to compel the four Republican candidates to prove their Christian credentials. And though U.S. senator is a secular office, they mostly obliged.

Candidate Sam Clovis responded to Erickson's question about what criteria he would use to block President Obama's judicial nominees by saying he would vote for a judge who could link "natural law" to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Mark Jacobs said he would look for someone who would "not legislate from the bench." Joni Ernst echoed that view, adding the judge would need to understand that America's laws "all came from God."

But Whitaker went the farthest: "Natural law often times is used from the eye of the beholder and what I would like to see — I'd like to see things like their world view, what informs them. Are they people of faith? Do they have a biblical view of justice? — which I think is very important because we all know that our government ..."

"Levitical or New Testament?" interrupted Erickson.

"I'm a New Testament," continued Whitaker. "And what I know is as long as they have that world view, that they'll be a good judge. And if they have a secular world view, where this is all we have here on Earth, then I'm going to be very concerned about that judge."

Senators represent all the people of a state, and nation, not just those of the same religion. Yet there was no acknowledgment of religious pluralism, diversity or civil rights - on the bench or in the Iowa Republican Party.

Time and again, candidates realize they stand the best chance of winning a primary in today's Iowa Republican Party by picking a fight with the Constitution rather than honoring it. It's a kind of defiance that's growing around the country in the face of liberalized laws on gay marriage and increasingly fervent opposition to legal abortions.

"This is really important. It flies under the radar a lot of times, and it really does have an impact on people's lives," says Matt Menendez, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which does public interest litigation in defense of an independent judiciary. Menendez notes growing efforts in such states as Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas to attack judicial selection systems that were designed to insulate judges from political and other pressures. Told of Whitaker's position on judges, Menendez called it "flatly inconsistent" with the constitutional clauses that "unambiguously prohibit" any religious litmus test.

Erickson, the moderator, has taken the view that business owners who sell goods and services to gay people are "aiding and abetting" sin. He asked candidates about businesses' "right" to refuse service to some people.

Several responded with references to the Gortz Haus case in Grimes, where owners are suing the Iowa Civil Rights Commission for allegedly trying to force them to violate their religious beliefs by renting their venue for a same-sex wedding. Iowa not only acknowledges same-sex marriage but prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

"We don't want to discriminate against people," Ernst said. "However, if you have a person or a business that have those deep-seated beliefs then they should not be forced to do something that does not fit within their religious beliefs."

Whitaker called on the owners and other Christians to "stand firm."

Christians remain the overwhelming majority in America, accounting for 78 percent of Americans, according to the Pew Research Center. Sixteen percent of Americans are religiously unaffiliated. But numbers aren't the sue. The Constitution was written to protect the rights of everyone, including minorities.

Now some people are seeking public office with the express goal of moving the United States closer to a theocracy, in which everything — including court rulings — is based on particular interpretations of the Bible.

Even that holy book was a debate question, with the moderator noting that "everyone" in Republican debates talks about Jesus and the Bible without offering specifics. "What is your favorite book of the Bible?" Erickson wanted to know.

It was a bizarre question, wholly inappropriate for a political debate, but all four answered it. No one asked why having a favorite Bible passage should be a prerequisite to winning a secular office. Or if the same question would be posed to a candidate of another religion. Or if a candidate of another religion could expect any consideration from the party's torch-bearers.

These issues weren't even debated with a wink and a nod, but rather, with a thumb on the nose of America's founding principles of equality and justice for all. The event should signal mainstream Republican presidential candidates not to even bother campaigning in this first presidential caucus state — because the deck is stacked against them here.

Rekha Basu is an opinion columnist for The Des Moines Register. Contact: rbasu@dmreg.com. Follow her on Twitter @RekhaBasu and at Facebook.com/ColumnistRekha. Her book, "Finding Her Voice: A collection of Des Moines Register columns about women's struggles and triumphs in the Midwest," is available at ShopDMRegister.com/FindingHerVoice