A Boston politician called Brandeis \u201ca slimy fellow\u201d capable of using \u201chis smoothness and intrigue, together with his Jewish instinct,\u201d to attain power. Ex-president and future Chief Justice William Howard Taft called Brandeis \u201cutterly unscrupulous\u201d and \u201ca man of infinite cunning,\u201d warning that he \u201chas adopted Zionism, favors the new Jerusalem, and has metaphorically been re-circumcised.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next Jewish nominee to the Supreme Court, Benjamin Cardozo, faced resistance as well. Justice James McReynolds \u2014 who had refused to sit next to Brandeis<\/a> in official court photographs \u2014 opposed Cardozo\u2019s nomination on blatantly anti-Semitic grounds. At Cordozo\u2019s swearing in, in 1932, McReynolds read a newspaper during the proceedings and could be heard muttering, \u201cAnother one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There is a long history of judicial nominees being treated with suspicion because of their religion. It needs to stay in the past.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It would be absurd enough to interrogate a political candidate about whether she intended to impose her personal religious beliefs on the country through legislation. It is even more absurd for senators to imply that a judge, who cannot propose or enact legislation, would be incapable of setting aside his religious beliefs when interpreting our written laws.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n If sitting lawmakers are allowed to make such assumptions of Catholic nominees, religious minorities could very well be next….<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n A fine op ed by Rabbi Mitch Rocklin, a postdoctoral fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton. “Keep religious tests out of the Senate” https:\/\/t.co\/dhjhT8Azbh<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Robert P. George (@McCormickProf) January 17, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n