Injudicious Rhetoric: Religious Right Works To Divert Discussion Of Justice Nominee Roberts’ Record
Right-wing activists are rallying around President George W. Bush’s Supreme Court nominee Judge John G. Roberts and slamming the nominee’s critics as hate-mongers.
Televangelist Jerry Falwell, who relishes attacking Americans United for Separation of Church and State as well as a host of other progressive groups, recently issued an e-mail to supporters decrying critics of Roberts.
In his July 29 “Falwell Confidential,” the televangelist argues, in a typically shrill fashion, that organizations such as Americans United are working to “DESTROY JUDGE ROBERTS.”
Americans United and other public interest groups are leveling “frenzied (and false) charges” at Roberts, who Falwell says, “appears to have unimpeachable credentials and a sterling judicial and personal history.”
Falwell singles out the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, for a comment he made about the Roberts nomination. “Roberts will work to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state and open the door to majority rule on religious matters,” said Lynn.
The televangelist writes that, “Mr. Lynn would rather have a justice who would arrive on his first day on the job with a sledge hammer to dismantle the depictions of the Ten Commandments, Moses and Solomon that beautifully adorn the U.S. Supreme Court Building.” He added also that, “The left also asserts that Judge Roberts is a wild-eyed, Bible-thumping anti-abortion fanatic.”
Americans United does indeed oppose Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court, but not because of his religious beliefs. It does not matter where Roberts attends church. It does matter to us whether Roberts supports the First Amendment principle of church-state separation.
Falwell, as is his wont, wildly distorts Americans United’s position. Lynn has never had a problem with the U.S. Supreme Court Building’s decorative frieze, which includes an array of law-givers both secular and religious. For that matter, contrary to other shrill critics, Americans United does not advocate for the suppression of religious expression. We do argue for and defend the First Amendment principle of church-state separation as articulated by Founding Fathers James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.
So it is not surprising that our group would be troubled by Roberts, who during the Reagan administration and the first Bush administration, revealed a far right ideological bent. He has advocated for stripping courts of their ability to hear church-state disputes and for government-sanctioned prayer at public school events. He also sought to scrap a three-decades-old legal test intended to keep religion and government at a healthy distance.
Roberts’ take on the First Amendment tends toward the high court’s most extreme members, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Americans United has an obligation to its members to warn the nation that the Bush administration is bent on radically shifting the nation’s high court to the right.
But folks such as Falwell will have none of it. Instead, they want to change the subject and smear the opponents of Roberts. Their efforts are not surprising, just sad. Their tactics are aimed at diverting scrutiny of Robert’s record. They don’t want a real debate.
The Constitution forbids religious tests for public office. It also provides for a separation of church and state. Judges therefore must refrain from relying on their personal religious tenets when issuing rulings on the Constitution. So it is proper, despite the grumblings of Falwell & Co., for senators to ask Roberts about his stance on religion and government.