White House Defends Judicial Nominee’s ‘Religious Freedom’ to Support Her Biblical Stance on Same-Sex Marriage, Abortion

‘We Certainly Support Religious Freedom and Would Ask That Congress Also Support That as Well’ Says Press Secretary

The White House is citing its nominee’s “judicial freedom” to defend her hardline stances on social issues, from abortion to same-sex marriage.

In response to a question from the far right wing think tank Heritage Foundation about judicial nominee Amy Barrett’s ability to properly do her job if confirmed, Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters: “We certainly support religious freedom and would ask that Congress also support that as well,” according to The Washington Blade‘s Chris Johnson. 

Why This Matters: Judges should not defer to their religious beliefs when interpreting the law or the Constitution.

Barrett, who has been nominated to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, hold views far outside the mainstream. 

As Friendly Atheist‘s Hemant Mehta noted earlier Monday, during the confirmation hearing “Sen. Dianne Feinstein feared that Barrett would try to overturn Roe v. Wade on the basis of her faith, not because of any legal argument to do so.”

“The dogma lives loudly within you,” Feinstein said. “And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for for years in this country.”

The religious right has mounted a crusade to support Barrett, claiming Sen. Feinstein is attacking Catholics and her Catholic faith.

That’s false.

During her confirmation hearing “Ms. Barrett told the senators that she was a faithful Catholic, and that her religious beliefs would not affect her decisions as an appellate judge. But her membership in a small, tightly knit Christian group called People of Praise never came up at the hearing, and might have led to even more intense questioning,” The New York Times reports.

Some of the group’s practices would surprise many faithful Catholics. Members of the group swear a lifelong oath of loyalty, called a covenant, to one another, and are assigned and are accountable to a personal adviser, called a “head” for men and a “handmaid” for women. The group teaches that husbands are the heads of their wives and should take authority over the family.

A literal “Handmaid’s Tale.”

“Current and former members say that the heads and handmaids give direction on important decisions, including whom to date or marry, where to live, whether to take a job or buy a home, and how to raise children,” The Times adds.

Here was Democratic Sen. Al Franken questioning Barrett, noting she has been paid by the Alliance Defending Freedom, which appears on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of anti-gay hate groups.

The Blade notes that while the press secretary “was responding to a question about Barrett in particular, her response could have applied to any number of Trump nominees with anti-LGBT records.

Among them is Jeff Mateer, whom Trump nominated for a federal judgeship in Texas. A CNN report revealed 2015 comments in which Mateer endorsed widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy, opposed same-sex marriage and called transgender kids part of “Satan’s plan.”

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