Former Democrat VP candidate Joe Lieberman rips ‘un-American’ criticism of Trump’s Supreme Court pick Amy Coney Barrett

Former Democratic VP candidate Joe Lieberman said questioning Amy Coney Barrett on her religion is out of line.

Barrett, a federal judge, was just tapped by US President Donald Trump on Friday to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

The move set off a rush to examine the nominee’s track record and beliefs ahead of her Senate confirmation hearings.

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Amy Coney Barrett will likely be asked about her ability to separate religion and politics during her confrimation hearing[/caption]

Barrett, a devout Catholic who has signed on to the official position of the Catholic Church on hot-button issues like gay marriage and abortion, was grilled on her religious beliefs in 2017 when she was being confirmed to the federal bench.

Sen. Diane Feinstein said she thought Barrett could not separate religion and politics in her rulings, saying, “the dogma lives loudly within you.”

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Barrett is a federal judge on the Seventh Circuit in Chicago[/caption]

Many anticipate Barrett will be quizzed again about how her religious beliefs influence her rulings, which Lieberman said was beyond the pale.

‘You can disagree with somebody based on whether they’re pro-life or pro-choice,” Lieberman, a former Democrat turned independent, told Fox News.

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Joe Lieberman, a former Democratic senator for Connecticut, is now an independent[/caption]

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Joe Lieberman with running mate Al Gore in 2000[/caption]

“But when you start to say that you’re against them because their religion, in this case their Roman Catholicism, determines their point of view, you’re doing something really abhorrent that I think is bigoted, is un-American, and incidentally, is unconstitutional.”

Being Catholic is evidently not a barrier to being confirmed on the Supreme Court. Currently, a majority of its justices are Catholic: Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, and Brett Kavanaugh are all Catholic. A sixth, Neil Gorsuch, was raised Catholic.

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U.S. President Donald Trump appointed Barrett to the bench with little more than one month to spare before the election[/caption]

Barrett’s supporters say they admire her for applying her religious principles to her legal work.

“She is the whole package,” according to Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the anti-abortion organization the Susan B. Anthony List.

“Her life is an extension of her beliefs — it is not just some convenient set of neat propositions,” Dannenfelser told the New York Times.

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Barrett clerked for Antonin Scalia, and some see her as his possible spiritual successor[/caption]

As a young lawyer, Barrett clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a Catholic conservative whose views were informed by the positions of the Catholic Church.

Lieberman, a former senator from Connecticut, was Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 election.

He saw the Supreme Court dash his hopes of becoming vice-president hen it ruled to stop Florida’s recount.