Nation

SCOTUS Hearing: Sen. Hawley blasts Dems for ‘religious bigotry’

Published

3 years ago

October 12, 2020

Senator Josh Hawley, R-MO, on Monday criticized his Democrat colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee for arguing that the Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett is “too Catholic to be on the bench.”

“When you tell somebody that they’re too catholic to be on the bench, when you tell them they’re gonna be a catholic judge, not an American judge, that’s bigotry,” Hawley told his colleagues, citing Article VI of the U.S. Constitution which bans such religious tests. “The pattern and practice of bigotry from members of that from this committee must stop.”

Watch the clip here:

HAWLEY: "When you tell somebody that they're too catholic to be on the bench, when you tell them they'll be a catholic judge, not an American judge, that's bigotry. The pattern and practice of bigotry from members of that from this committee must stop." pic.twitter.com/92FPVrvR14
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 12, 2020

A number of Democrats on the Committee and members of the media have argued that Judge Barrett’s devotion to Catholicism will sway her judicial decisions if she’s confirmed to the nation’s highest court. Moreover, some have suggested Judge Barrett would position the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, which allows women access to abortions.

That group of critics includes Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick Sen. Kamala Harris, D-CA, who in 2017 grilled Brian C. Buescher, a nominee for the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, over his Catholic faith. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-HI, another member of the Committee, joined Harris in that religious test at the time.

Judge Barrett was nominated by President Donald Trump on September 26 to fill the vacancy of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.

education

Parents, advocates call on leaders to step down after ZERO children pass math at 13 Baltimore state schools

Published

7 hours ago

September 27, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

How long will leaders who let our children down blame Covid-19 for their failures? Anger swept across Baltimore, Maryland, after not a single student passed their state math exams, and almost 75 percent testing at the lowest possible score.

The Daily Mail reports “The poor performances came in the latest round of Maryland‘s state testing, where 13 high schools in the city – a staggering 40 percent – failed to produce a single student with a ‘proficient’ score in math.” Baltimore City Schools not only received $1.6 billion last year from taxpayers, but the school district also received $799 million in Covid relief funding from the federal government.

“So, it’s not a funding issue. We’re getting plenty of funding,” said Jason Rodriguez, deputy director of Baltimore-based nonprofit People Empowered by the Struggle, to Fox Baltimore. “I don’t think money is the issue. I think accountability is the issue…This is educational homicide, there is no excuse for the failure, which has come after years of warnings over the city’s poor education standards,” added Rodriguez.

A bombshell study published this month by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) found that 16 million students were chronically absent during the pandemic. “The millions of students had missed more than 10 percent of schools days during the 2021-22 year, twice the number seen in previous years. More than eight in 10 public schools also reported stunted behavioral and social-emotional development in their students due to the pandemic, according to a May survey cited in the report.”

However, six years ago a similar report by Project Baltimore found that 13 schools in the city had zero students test ‘proficiently’ in math. An almost identical finding. “We’re still dealing with these same issues year after year,” Rodriguez continued. “It’s just scary to me and alarming to me because we know that what’s happening now, you know, it’s just opening up the floodgates to the school-to-prison pipeline. I’m beyond angry… This is why we’ve been calling for the resignation of the school CEO.”

Daily Mail notes that Rodriguez’s group has previously held rallies over the mounting educational crisis in the city, and in 2021 led calls for Baltimore City Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises to resign over low test scores and falling graduation rates.