August 12, 2005 – New York – The American Jewish Committee is urging House Majority Leader Tom Delay to pull out from the Justice Sunday II telecast. The program is scheduled to air on August 14.

“Sponsors of Justice Sunday II are promoting the insidious and baseless notion that the U.S. Supreme Court is hostile towards people of faith,” wrote AJC President E. Robert Goodkind and Executive Director David Harris in a letter to Rep. DeLay. “We urge you to reconsider lending your name and the stature of your office to the Justice Sunday campaign.”

America is a nation of diverse faith communities, and the political views of members of those communities run across the spectrum, wrote AJC. The Supreme Court, like the judicial branch as a whole, is a microcosm of this diversity.

“The publicity campaign of Justice Sunday II inaccurately suggests that all good people of faith adhere to the same tenets, beliefs, and understanding of political or legal questions. This characterization erroneously implies that promoting an interpretation of the law at odds with the conference’s sponsors constitutes hostility towards religion,” Goodkind and Harris wrote in their letter to Rep. DeLay.

AJC voiced similar concerns in advance of the first Justice Sunday telecast, broadcast in April, which promoted the chilling concept that the filibuster was being used to target people of faith, as opposed to reflecting deep-seated political differences and disagreements about the operation of the Constitutional separation of powers.

The full text of the letter follows:

August 10, 2005

The Honorable Tom DeLay

House Majority Leader

United States House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Leader:

On behalf of the American Jewish Committee, the nation’s oldest human relations organization with 33 regional chapters representing more then 150,000 members and supporters, I write to express our deep concern over recent characterizations of the U.S. Supreme Court as hostile towards people of faith. We urge you to reconsider your decision to participate in and lend the prestige of your office to the “Justice Sunday II” telecast scheduled for August 14, a program that will, by every expectation, promote this insidious notion.

The United States is blessed with a broad and diverse array of faith communities, and the political views of members of those communities run across the spectrum.   Our judicial branch, and the Supreme Court, in particular, is a microcosm of this diversity.   Debates over abortion, judicial nominations, and the right of the state to preserve a human life are important matters that have been discussed for decades and are central to America’s social and political systems. People of diverse political and religious perspectives who sit on the Court are charged with evaluating cases based on particular facts and applicable laws.

Justice Sunday II is being publicized as a response to an unjustifiable characterization of the Supreme Court as hostile towards religion.   The publicity campaign of Justice Sunday II inaccurately suggests that all good people of faith adhere to the same tenets, beliefs, and understanding of political or legal questions.   This characterization erroneously implies that promoting an interpretation of the law at odds with the conference’s sponsors constitutes hostility towards religion.  Similarly, the first Justice Sunday telecast in April promoted the chilling concept that the filibuster was being used to target people of faith, as opposed to reflecting deep-seated political differences and disagreements about the operation of the Constitutional separation of powers. 

No less than the decision of a Justice or a Member of Congress, the decision of an organization to take positions on a public policy issue, which AJC frequently has done, or on particular judicial nominations, which AJC has not, is in no way a statement of a general view of people of faith and should not be portrayed in that manner.

The ongoing, vigorous debate over judicial nominations reflects the openness of discussion that is a central element of our society.  The tactics employed by the Justice Sunday series stifle open debate, coarsen public discourse, and heighten divisions along religious lines: It is a great disservice to assert that those who hold conflicting opinions on contentious issues are targeting people on the basis of their religion or that particular resolutions of controversial constitutional questions by the nation’s high court constitute hostility towards religion.

As an organization representing members of a faith community engaged in public policy discussions on many fronts and from wide-ranging perspectives, we urge you to reconsider lending your name and stature to the Justice Sunday campaign.

Respectfully,

E. Robert Goodkind

David A. Harris