George,

You may have read that John Roberts is reported to have told Sen. Dick Durban that, if presented as Justice with a conflict between his religious beliefs—he is Roman Catholic—and the Constitution, he would recuse himself. This is appalling.

I was raised as a Catholic and was a junior-high student in 1960, when John Kennedy ran for president. I have never forgotten this: he said explicitly that, as a Catholic, he believed in the separation of church and state. He vowed: “But if the time should ever come—and I do not concede any conflict to be remotely possible—when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do likewise.”

This, before a conference of Baptist ministers in Houston, who had called upon him to state his position on—in effect—the weight of papal authority on a Catholic politician. That he drew the Constitutional line, and firmly, gave youngsters like me hope that we, too, could have a public role in America. I cannot overstate the historical importance of Kennedy’s statement, or its effect and influence.

I would have a hard time, now, voting for a candidate, Catholic or non-, whose position differed from Kennedy’s (and Kerry’s, let me add), and could not support any appointee to the judiciary who failed the test, as Roberts might.

You can read and listen to Kennedy’s speech on this site: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/johnfkennedyhoustonministerialspeech.html.

Katherine McNamara (electronic mail, July 27, 2005)