One would think it is rather cut-and-dried. Article 6 of the US Constitution reads, in part:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

This is not all that hard to understand. But, for progressive Democrats, an orthodox Christian causes a reaction much like Lucifer coming into contact with Holy Water. When Amy Coney Barrett was being grilled by Dianne Feinstein at what was supposed to be a confirmation hearing but looked more like an atheist auto-da-fé, there was this remarkable exchange.

https://twitter.com/JasonCalvi/status/905509581975166976 When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you. And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for for years in this country. Here’s Hawaii’s Mazie (Mazie, srsly??) Hirono: I think your article is very plain in your perspective about the role of religion for judges, and particularly with regard to Catholic judges. Dick Durbin: “Do you consider yourself an orthodox Catholic?” Given that Durbin is allegedly Catholic himself, he seems to be asking if she actually believes any of that mumbo-jumbo.

The subtext here is as remarkable as it is illegal. These clowns were using Amy Coney Barrett’s religion as a factor in weighing her qualifications for the bench. All three of the senators using Barrett’s Catholicism as a cudgel followed through and voted against her in committee and on the floor.

Now they are at it again.

Brian Buescher, a distinguished Omaha lawyer, has been nominated to be a district judge in the District of Nebraska. He’s received a questionnaire from the Senate Judiciary Committee which contains a question from Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono. Hirono is rapidly establishing a reputation for being a viciously stupid say-anything kind of partisan that one-party Democrat states seem to spawn with fearful regularity.

In written questions sent to Mr. Buescher by committee members Dec. 5, Sen. Hirono stated that “the Knights of Columbus has taken a number of extreme positions. For example, it was reportedly one of the top contributors to California’s Proposition 8 campaign to ban same-sex marriage.” Hirono then asked Buescher if he would quit the group if he was confirmed “to avoid any appearance of bias.”

Dear Lord, the Knights of Columbus? The most offensive thing about the Knights of Columbus is the feathered hats.

Corey “No, really, I am actually heterosexual” Booker also had a noteworthy addition:

Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) noted the nominee’s previously outspoken opposition to abortion and asked “why should a litigant in your courtroom expect to get a fair hearing from an impartial judge in a case involving abortion rights?”

Read the whole questionnaire.

This is why is have come to disregard the views of those who keep telling me that there is no persecution of Christians in America or how the “war on Christmans” is something Fox News dreamed up as red meat for their audience. When anti-Christian and anti-Catholic bigotry have become such a part of mainstream political life that a man can be asked, with a straight face…or as straight a face as the “body positive” Hirono can muster…if he will resign from a Catholic fraternal order because that order supported the definition of marriage has had been understood by humanity from the beginning of time until the days of Anthony Kennedy, then we have reached a state where persecution is real and all we are discussing is how severe the penalty will be.

In the case of Buescher, these senators wish to deny him an appointment to the federal bench. In the case of Jack Phillips and Barronelle Stutzman, they want to deprive them of a livelihood and fine them into penury.

The saving grace here is that the Democrats will lose a seat or two on the Judiciary Committee and so this idiocy won’t make any difference. But it is a warning. It shows that there is no social stigma associated with religious bigotry and there is no one in the US Senate who dares file an ethics complaint to protest a facially unconstitutional question and that, my friends, shows the extent of the danger.

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