The leader of a Catholic religious and civil rights group is pointing out it didn't take long for critics of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts to drag religion into the debate. He accuses an online magazine that is seldom friendly to Catholics of "playing the Catholic card" in early attempts to undermine the nominee's chances for confirmation.
Supreme Court nominee John Roberts and his wife, Jane, are Roman Catholics. He attended Catholic elementary and high schools in Indiana, and now is a parishioner at a Catholic church near the couple's home in Maryland. Jane Roberts is on the board of governors of the John Carroll Society, a Catholic lay group that sponsors a Mass every year before the start of the new Supreme Court term. In addition, she was on the board of directors for Feminists for Life from 1995 to 1999 and at one time was its executive vice president. She currently does pro bono legal work for the organization.
The day after President Bush introduced John Roberts as his nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the lead story on the online magazine The American Prospect asserted that Bush is "betting he's bought some insulation" by nominating Roberts because "any opposition to Roberts, particularly because of his anti-abortion record, will likely be countered with accusations of anti-Catholicism." The writer of the article, Adele Stan, labels the appointment a "timely pitch [to] conservative Catholic voters prior to the midterm elections."
William Donohue is president of the New York City-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. He observes that "we didn't have to wait too long" for Roberts' religion to become part of the debate over the nominee's credentials and suitability for the nation's highest court. But he recalls no similar criticism of President Bill Clinton when he nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is Jewish, to the Supreme Court.
"Did he [nominate Ginsburg] because he liked 'playing the Jewish card'?" Donohue wonders. "And did he do so because he wanted his critics to be seen as anti-Semites?"
It is unfortunate, says the Catholic League spokesman, that "Catholic baiting has raise its ugly head" so soon after the announcement of the nomination. And even more disconcerting, he states, is that it came from he describes as a mainstream liberal news source. "We hope this is not the beginning of an ugly few months," he laments.
A Stylebook Issue?
But the diatribe of one online magazine columnist may be the least of Donohue's worries. He points out that Associated Press, in reporting on its recent poll asking if Roberts should answer senators' questions about his stance on abortion, also injected the "Catholic card" in a somewhat ambiguous fashion.
The AP report stated that "While deputy solicitor general in 1990, Roberts, a Roman Catholic, helped write a legal brief" that suggested Roe v. Wade be overturned. While that may not seem a critical insertion about the nominee's religious affiliation, Donohue offers the following:
"To the unconvinced, imagine reading [this]: 'Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a Jew, helped write a legal brief' for the ACLU upholding Roe," he offers, noting that according to most surveys, Jews are more uniformly in favor of abortion rights than Catholic are pro-life.
And there's more, says Donohue. "NPR's Lynn Neary said of Roberts, 'And he is a Roman Catholic, and that might affect the way he views an issue like abortion, for instance,'" he notes.
The Catholic League leader says these are examples of how some in the media are trying to establish a "cause-and-effect relationship" between the fact that Roberts is Catholic and his presumed position on abortion. Donohue says he sees such treatment as more than just "red flags" of media bias. "These are the marks of bigotry, politely expressed," he says.
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