President Donald Trump’s judicial nomination of Amy Barrett has become a religious-liberty flashpoint in recent weeks, with Democratic senators arguing that her conservative Catholicism would interfere with her ability to uphold the law. Sen. Jeff Flake defended Barrett on the Senate floor Monday evening, arguing against what he said amounted to an unconstitutional religious test.
“It is religious liberty that is threatened when we seem to evaluate the fitness of nominees for high office on religious orthodoxy,” said Flake, an outspoken Mormon. “While it’s remarkable that I need to say this in 2017, it bears repeating: A Roman Catholic can be a faithful steward of the law. So can an Episcopalian, so can a Mormon, so can a Muslim, or so can an atheist.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California last month voiced her opposition to Barrett, who teaches at the Notre Dame Law School, saying she worried that “the dogma lives loudly” within the nominee. Last week, the New York Times published a long piece that fretted over Barrett’s affiliation with charismatic Christian group People of Praise.
“Liberal groups have been relentless in their opposition to Dr. Barrett, mischaracterizing her record to paint her as some fringe ideologue, waiting to take orders from the Pope or others in clergy on how to decide cases,” Flake said. “In the United States it doesn’t matter where you worship when you are being considered for a federal office. And that is as it should be.”
Barrett comes to the nomination with strong legal credentials, clerking in the past for Antonin Scalia and teaching at Notre Dame for 15 years.
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05.03.2025