Judge Amy Coney Barrett
The depth of one’s religious beliefs should not be taken into account during the nomination process for the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Michigan’s Catholic community.
Of those polled by American Catholic Media Company, 83.5%, or 475 respondents, disagree with comments that Nikitha Rai, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s deputy data director, made on Twitter stating those with sincerely held religious beliefs should not serve on the country’s high court.
The poll ran Oct. 1-7 on Facebook and was targeted to Catholics living in Michigan, resulting in 569 responses.
The Michigan Catholic Tribune asked poll respondents, “A deputy campaign director for former Vice President Joe Biden said this week that she believes the faithfully religious— including Catholics like Amy Coney Barrett—should be barred from serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. Do you agree?”
In a since deleted tweet, Rai said that those with deep religious beliefs should not serve on the court.
“I’d heavily prefer views like that not be elevated to SCOTUS, but unfortunately our current culture is relatively intolerant,” Rai tweeted. “It will be awhile before those types of beliefs are so taboo that they’re disqualifiers.”
The 48-year-old Barrett, a mother of seven and former Notre Dame professor, is a devout Orthodox Catholic. She is currently a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Barrett needs to prepare to defend herself against anti-Catholic biases as the nomination bears out, according to Crux. Dolan noted that Barrett’s openness about her religious beliefs would be nothing new for the seat.
“What I admired in the accolades to Ruth Bader Ginsberg, there were a lot of articles about her deep Jewish faith and how she was not afraid to say that the values of her Jewish faith animated how she lived, and how she judged,” Dolan said. “Nobody found that controversial.”
Many have insisted that a disparity exists in the media portrayal of Barrett and Biden, both of whom are Catholics.
The Federalist noted that Barrett receives extra scrutiny for her beliefs while Biden is largely given a pass for not conforming to the Catholic Church’s basic tenets, including his avowed support for abortion.
Biden recently launched a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at Catholic and evangelical programming touting his religious bonafides. The ad campaign is running in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In 2017, U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), the first Jewish female to be elected to the U.S. Senate, questioned Barrett’s ability to be impartial given her religious beliefs.
“I think in your case, professor, when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the Dogma lives loudly within you,” Feinstein said in the 2017 hearing, as reported in the Independent. “And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have thought for, for years in this country.”
See a chart below with recorded responses to poll questions.
Founded in 2019, Chicago-based American Catholic Media Company is a publisher of Catholic parish news around the United States.
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