Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty - BJC: Souter's church-state record hard to replace, hopes Sotomayor does just that

Watch

SOLID, RELIABLE, CONFIDENT â€” these are three words that describe the Baptist Joint Committee as we carry out our work every day on Capitol Hill.

From the halls of Congress, to the agencies and in the courts, the BJC works to defend and extend God-given religious liberty for all people.

With its guarantees of our most fundamental freedoms, the First Amendment must be defended if we are to preserve religious liberty for everyone. Our challenge is great, but we are determined to meet it.

For more than 70 years, the BJC has sounded the alarm and fought the battles from our office on Capitol Hill. We are the only religious organization in the country that works solely on religious liberty issues.

As always, we need your financial support to continue to wage the fight for religious liberty.

Won't you make an investment in religious liberty for your children and grandchildren?

Donate

Home

News & Opinions

Press Room

BJC: Souter's church-state record hard to replace, hopes Sotomayor does just that

Written by Jeff Huett & Cherilyn Crowe
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
WASHINGTON - While retiring Justice David Souter's church-state record will be difficult to replace, the Baptist Joint Committee hopes that President Barack Obama's nominee for the High Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, will do just that. "More than any other justice, Justice Souter has reflected the Baptist Joint Committee's understanding of the proper interpretation of the religion clauses and how they apply to contemporary church-state issues," said BJC Executive Director J. Brent Walker. Judge Sotomayor has impressive credentials and extensive judicial experience. Her time working as a prosecutor and her time working in a private law firm before her appointment to the federal bench give her experience in many different aspects of law. Sotomayor also enjoyed bipartisan support in her career. She was appointed to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush and elevated to the appeals court by President Bill Clinton. She has dealt with a variety of cases in her time on the bench, including the 1995 Major League baseball strike, copyright infringement regarding the "Senifeld" television program, and claims from vicitms' families in the TWA flight 800 crash. She has also made rulings and written opinions on cases regarding the First Amendment's religion clauses. Walker said more important than ideology, Justice Souter's successor "should be a thoughtful, fair-minded, hard working jurist. After all, that is what Justice Souter has been for nearly two decades." The BJC looks forward to learning more about Judge Sotomayor by carefully reviewing her record and the confirmation hearings. The Baptist Joint Committee is a 73-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based religious liberty organization that works to defend and extend God-given religious liberty for all, bringing a uniquely Baptist witness to the principle that religion must be freely exercised, neither advanced nor inhibited by government. -30-

Related Items

Quote of the Day

From former George W. Bush speechwriter and policy advisor Michael Gerson in a Washington Post op-ed: The Christian fundamentalist view of Islam bears a striking resemblance to the New York Times' view of Christian fundamentalism -- a simplistic emphasis on the worst elements of a com...

Dubious "Voter Guide" Riles NY Pastor

The Suffolk County (NY) Christian Coalition is distributing "voter guides" to area churches in hopes that they will be included in bulletins ahead of the upcoming congressional primary. Educational, nonpartisan voter guides are allowed to be distributed in churches without jeop...

Subscribe to the
Baptist Joint Committee's
E-mail Updates