Feinstein: ‘Appropriate’ for Me To Worry About Judicial Nominee’s Catholicism

EXCERPT:

FEINSTEIN: "I’m a product of Catholic education from the Convent of the Sacred Heart. I sat in doctrine classes for four years, five days a week. I think Catholicism is a great religion. I have great respect for it. I have known many of the archbishops that have been in my community. We’ve had dinner together. We’ve spoken together over many, many decades, and I’ve tried to be helpful to the Church whenever I could. Having said that, this is a woman that has no real trial or court experience and, therefore, there is no record. She’s a professor, which is fine, but all we have to look at are her writings. And in her writings, she makes some statements which are questionable, which deserve questions. For example, and this is pretty much a near quote, it may well be that a Catholic judge cannot be independent. This is not a direct quote, because I don’t have it in front of me, but it was something to necessitate us to, I thought, appropriately ask about it.”