In a stunning act of political courage, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, effectively accused two of her own party’s senators of “religious bigotry” for their harsh inquiries about Nebraska judicial nominee Brian Buescher’s membership in a religious service organization. She’s absolutely right.

Gabbard had a column published in the Hill on Tuesday in which she took to task two senators “who are fomenting religious bigotry, citing as disqualifiers Buescher’s Catholicism and his affiliation with the Knights of Columbus.” Though she didn't mention them by name, it's pretty clear Gabbard is chastizing Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who asked Buescher if his Catholicism and membership in the Knights would cast into doubt whether he could hear cases “fairly and impartially.”

Harris and Hirono are both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which holds hearings assessing judicial nominees’ fitness for office.

Gabbard even broadened her rebuke to include the ranking Democratic member of the committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.:



If Buescher is ‘unqualified’ because of his Catholicism and affiliation with the Knights of Columbus, then President John F. Kennedy, and the 'liberal lion of the Senate' Ted Kennedy would have been 'unqualified' for the same reasons. Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution clearly states that there ‘shall be no religious test’ for any seeking to serve in public office. No American should be told that his or her public service is unwelcome because 'the dogma lives loudly within you' as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said to Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearings in 2017 to serve as U.S. Circuit Court judge in the 7th Circuit.



This is strong stuff, and it is long overdue. Feinstein and Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have been treating devout Catholicism as a likely disqualifier of judicial nominees for at least 15 years, with their bigotry first attracting major notice during the confirmation hearing of Alabama’s William Pryor for a spot on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. There, Feinstein had the gall to attack Pryor for quoting St. Thomas Aquinas while giving the commencement address to his alma mater, a Catholic high school in Mobile, Ala.

These sorts of religious tests for office are completely contrary to the American tradition and to the spirit and, depending on how applied, perhaps the letter of the Constitution. They are unethical and immoral as well. Gabbard made that case quite dramatically.

“We must stand together, and with one voice condemn those who seek to incite bigotry based on religion,” she wrote. And, a few sentences later: “Standing up for freedom of religion for all people is as critical now as it’s ever been — hatred and bigotry are casting a dark shadow over our political system and threatening the very fabric of our country.”

In effect, she is accusing Feinstein, Harris, and Hirono of hatred and bigotry. Based on the available evidence, she has a good point.