Today, we have a modern Test Act.
In 17th century England, Catholic civil and military officials were required to renounce the doctrine of transubstantion in order to please the anti-Catholic bigots. In 21st century America, Catholic judicial nominess are required to renounce the doctrine of the sanctity of unborn life in order to please the Democratic Party and its pro-abortion bedfellows.
This is what the GOP means when it says that an anti-Catholic religious test is being imposed on W’s judicial nominees. If you are a sincere Catholic who holds to the Church’s teachings on life, then you can’t be a federal judge, by their criteria.
In 1776, the framers of the Constitution explicitly rejected such religious tests and the bigotry they institutionalized. Article Six of the Constitution says, in one of the final declarative provisions of the document, “...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Does that still apply or is it just another constitutional provision that has been wished away under the guise of interpreting a “living document?”
