Gavin Newsom wasted no time attacking Judge Amy Coney Barrett yesterday, commenting on a tweet about her: “This makes me sick to my stomach.”

But the Governor’s shameless attacks are nothing compared to those of our senior U.S. Senator, Dianne Feinstein. In 2017, Feinstein tried to use Barrett’s Catholic faith against her in one of the ugliest attacks in modern American politics.

At the time, I wrote Feinstein a letter signed by 25 California Legislators, asking that she do the decent thing and apologize. You can read my letter to Feinstein here.

Feinstein had suggested Barrett’s Catholic faith would disqualify her from being a fair-minded judge. My letter told Feinstein this accusation was “alarming, and without precedent in our recent history.”

My letter continued: “Your comments are offensive to fundamental American principles: freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. They profoundly misunderstand what it means to be a person of faith.”

Of course, Feinstein refused to apologize. Incredibly, California’s other U.S. Senator, Kamala Harris, then attacked another judicial nominee’s Catholic religious affiliation.

I’d had enough. I introduced Assembly Joint Resolution 12, calling out both Senators for their bigoted statements. My Resolution “condemns any attempt to disqualify an individual for public office on the basis of that individual’s religious beliefs and affirms that a religious test is a violation of the United States Constitution.”

At the federal level, a similar resolution passed unanimously. But California’s rarefied Legislature wouldn’t even vote on it. This, sadly, was hardly surprising, since the Legislature has repeatedly attacked religious liberty and religious pluralism in recent years – including a vile crusade against private Christian colleges.  

Amy Coney Barrett’s abundant merits as a Justice will be clear to Americans in the coming weeks. As the likes of Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, and Dianne Feinstein continue their despicable attacks, I will be reminding them that religious liberty is America’s very first principle.

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