Roy Speckhardt, AHA Executive Director, Reflects on Kavanaugh Testimony

Contact:

Sarah Henry, (202) 238-9088, shenry@americanhumanist.org

As Judge Brett Kavanaugh continues his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, it has become increasingly clear to us at the American Humanist Association that Kavanaugh is a danger to religious freedom and church-state separation.

More comes to light each day establishing Kavanaugh’s disrespect for our constitutional protections. As recently as 2017, Kavanaugh stated that he believes that the “wall of separation” metaphor, Thomas Jefferson’s historic explanation of the religion clause of the First Amendment, “was wrong as a matter of law and history.”

This week’s hearings have continued to confirm that Brett Kavanaugh is no friend to women, to people of color, to immigrants, or to people of minority religions or no religion at all.

The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court would also be a confirmation of religious bigotry and a rebuke of humanist values. The American Humanist Association was honored to join 17 members of the Secular Coalition for America in a July 2018 letter voicing our opposition to Kavanaugh’s nomination. On Wednesday, September 5, 2018, Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii entered that letter into the official record of the hearings, ensuring that the voices of humanist Americans are heard and recognized. We were also pleased to join the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in a letter to the Senate opposing Kavanaugh, sent September 3, 2018.

The American Humanist Association will continue to oppose the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh through the coming days of deliberation. Please continue (or start!) calling your senators and reminding them that Kavanaugh is not just a threat to true religious freedom, he’s a threat to humanist values at their core.

Roy Speckhardt

Executive Director, American Humanist Association