Mr. President, I rise today to offer a very basic resolution. I want Senators to unanimously reaffirm our oath of office to a Constitution that explicitly rejects religious bigotry. It is useful to…
Mr. President, I rise today to offer a very basic resolution. I want Senators to unanimously reaffirm our oath of office to a Constitution that explicitly rejects religious bigotry.
It is useful to regularly remind ourselves that Americans are First Amendment people. Each of the five freedoms in the First Amendment-- speech, press, religion, assembly, and protest--defines who we are. In America, we talk, we read, we argue, and we march and worship without fear. Because of this fundamental celebration of human dignity and human freedom, America is big enough to welcome a whole bunch of meaty and messy fights on everything from whom you vote for to whom you call God.
Just as the First Amendment prohibits the government from dictating anyone's religious beliefs, so, too, the Constitution explicitly rejects religious tests for Federal office. Our Constitution explicitly rejects religious tests for Federal office. This isn't a Republican belief; this isn't a Democratic belief; this is an American belief. But, tragically, over the last couple of years, some strange things have been happening in this body, and we seem to be forgetting some of those basic 101 American civics truths.
I want to tell you a story. Brian Buescher from my State was recently nominated by the President to be a Federal judge for the District of Nebraska. This is an honor for him and his family, a celebration of his brain, work ethic, and his integrity. By the way, Brian is also Catholic and an active member of the Knights of Columbus.
The Knights of Columbus, for those of you who don't know, is the largest Catholic fraternal service organization in the world. The Knights' 1.6 million members of the organization raise millions of dollars for charity every year, and they contribute millions of hours of volunteer service.
Like a lot of guys back in Nebraska, Brian joined the Knights of Columbus to give back and to also be involved in a bunch of fish frys. This is not the stuff of headlines, but it is the stuff of basic neighborliness.
This is where the story gets weird because at Brian's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee a few weeks ago, one of my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee called the Knights of Columbus ``an extremist organization.'' Huh? It got worse. Brian then got a letter from a Member of this body asking him if he would resign his membership in the Knights of Columbus if he were confirmed to the Federal bench to ``avoid the appearance of bias.''
This is nuts. We are talking about the largest Catholic fraternal organization in the world being called an extremist organization and a nominee for the Federal bench being asked to resign from this organization so that he can serve without the appearance of bias. The clear implication here was that Brian's religious beliefs and his religious affiliations--in this case, an affiliation with a Catholic organization that invests countless hours and millions of dollars annually serving special needs kids--Brian was supposedly therefore potentially unfit for Federal service. This is the same kind of garbage that was thrown at a Member of this body, John F. Kennedy, 60 years ago when he was campaigning for the Presidency.
So today I have introduced a resolution--a 101-level, basic resolution--that simply reaffirms the belief of this body in American religious liberty. The resolution simply says that it is the sense of the Senate that disqualifying a nominee for the Federal bench or any Federal office on the basis of his Catholic beliefs or membership in the Knights of Columbus violates the no religious test clause of the Constitution. It seems obvious on its face.
In this resolution, we are simply reaffirming with President Kennedy and with countless other Americans across 230 years--Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Agnostic, Atheist and others-- we are simply reaffirming the idea that America is big enough for disagreements. Stated differently, we are saying that we believe the U.S. Government is not in the business of trying to resolve debates about
Heaven and Hell; rather, the business of the U.S. Government is to preserve peace and order so that you and your neighbors can precisely wrestle about things such as Heaven and Hell or sports loyalties or dietary preferences. America can handle principled pluralism and honest, serious debate.
This resolution ought to have the support of every single Member of this body. After all, each of us took an oath to defend this very idea when we first came here. This is what America is actually about.
The text of the resolution before us states:
Expressing the sense of the Senate that disqualifying a
nominee to Federal office on the basis of membership in the
Knights of Columbus violates the Constitution of the United
States.
Whereas, throughout the history of the United States, the
religious liberty protected by both the First Amendment and
the No Religious Test Clause of the Constitution of the
United States has been at the heart of the American
experiment;
Whereas, in 1960, the presidential candidacy of John F.
Kennedy was met with significant anti-Catholic bigotry;
Whereas, then-Senator Kennedy responded to the bigotry with
these timeless words: ``For while this year it may be a
Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in
other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew or a
Quaker or a Unitarian or a Baptist. . . . Today I may be the
victim, but tomorrow it may be you, until the whole fabric of
our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national
peril.'';
Whereas the Knights of Columbus (in this preamble referred
to as the ``Knights'') constitute the largest Catholic
fraternal service organization in the world;
Whereas the Knights have a proud tradition of standing
against the forces of prejudice and oppression, such as the
Ku Klux Klan and Nazi Germany;
Whereas the Knights are founded on the principles of
charity, unity, fraternity, and patriotism; and
Whereas, in 2017, the Knights made more than $185,000,000
in charitable contributions and volunteered more than
75,600,000 service hours: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that
disqualifying a nominee to Federal office on the basis of
membership in the Knights of Columbus violates clause 3 of
article VI of the Constitution of the United States, which
establishes that Senators ``shall be bound by Oath or
Affirmation, to support th[e] Constitution'' and ``no
religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to
any Office or public Trust under the United States.''
Period. Full stop.
If a Senator has a problem with this resolution, they are probably in the wrong line of work because this is what America is. This is a super basic point. No religious tests. If someone has a problem with this resolution, what other parts of the Constitution are they against? Freedom of the press? Women's right to vote? Freedom of speech?
This isn't hard. There are no religious tests for serving on the Federal bench. We in this body should rebuke these anti-Catholic attacks.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 19, submitted earlier today.
I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
I thank the Members of this body for reaffirming basic constitutional 101 stuff today. I will report back to Brian Buescher, the nominee for the Federal Bench for the District of Nebraska, that he can ignore those questions he received about whether he would resign his membership in the Knights of Columbus before this body proceeds to vote on his confirmation.
