(Washington Post Photograph, Sept. 26, 2020)
Questions for Judge Amy Coney Barrett that she will not answer at her Confirmation this week, but which need to be asked, come from an otherwise favorable New York Times article titled, Close-Knit Faith Group Helped Shape Barrett. The print edition was published last Friday, October 9, 2020.
The "close-knit faith group" of course is the now-famous People of Praise. It turns out they are more than just a simple "faith group."
"The group was not this bipartisan group of people. The social scene was extremely Republican, very much Rush Limbaugh." Dr. Arthur Wang, described as "a doctor in Indiana who joined the group in 1988" and "left the group around 2014[.]" That's something like 16 years, certainly enough time to gain experience and perspective on the group.
Judge Amy was a member of the POP group since she was a little girl in New Orleans, according to the article.
Ask her about that: Did this group have a particular political or secular orientation to it? If they were not bipartisan, what were they?
Did the members come from a particular social class, and no other?
How did they treat dissenters? Was dissent allowed or shunned?
Good questions for the member of any group.
Some peculiar characteristics of this particular social group are also revealed in this article. Members reportedly "sign an intention to stay with the group for the rest of their lives."
Did she sign one?
What did the one she signed, say?
Is she willing to produce a copy, to make a copy public? The job she is applying for could not be more public, nor could any other job than a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court demand more transparency and impartiality.
"Members are asked to donate at least 5 percent of their gross income to the community."
This does not sound like tithing to the Catholic Church. It sounds like a gratuity paid to POP. Confirm that she paid it and if she paid it to POP, what was it used for, exactly? It is hard to imagine what use POP could make of money that the Catholic Church -- a true "faith group" -- could not make.
"Members agree to submit to the leadership of a spiritual director and sign a 181-word 'covenant' that they frequently recite together."
This makes at least 2 agreements that POP requires its members to sign. I have been a member of faith groups but not one has ever required its members to sign any agreements.
Same questions as about the "intention to stay with" POP for the rest of their lives, above: Did she sign one?
What did the "covenant" she signed, actually say?
Is she willing to produce a copy, to make a copy public?
If not, why not?
Recent reporting on nondisclosure agreements demanded by The Occupant from doctors at Walter Reed make me wonder enough to ask if he also asked a judge to sign a nondisclosure agreement:
Did she sign any nondisclosure agreements about her appointment to the Supreme Court? If so, when, where, with whom -- and most of all, why?
Good questions all. More good questions are posed by Linda Greenhouse in her playbook for questions at the Confirmation in the NEW YORK TIMES.
Ask the questions, people.
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