Left launches anti-Catholic assault on Judge Barrett

FPI / September 24, 2020

The Left immediately went to its anti-Catholic bigotry playbook when Amy Coney Barrett's name emerged as a possible replacement following the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, analysts say.

Newsweek took the initial hand-off in the concerted effort to smear Barrett, Beckett Adams wrote for the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.

Considered one of President Donald Trump's top choices to replace Ginsburg, Barrett currently serves as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Newsweek falsely claimed that Barrett's hometown religious association is the inspiration for Margaret Atwood’s "The Handmaid’s Tale".

"Rather than retract the erroneous article, Newsweek believes a mere correction will do. It will not," Adams wrote.

The first iteration of the Newsweek story was titled: “How Amy Coney Barrett's People of Praise group inspired 'The Handmaid's Tale.’ ” The headline now reads: “How Charismatic Catholic Groups Like Amy Coney Barrett's People of Praise Inspired 'The Handmaid's Tale.’ ”

The report also bears a humiliating editor’s note, which reads: "This article's headline originally stated that People of Praise inspired 'The Handmaid's Tale'. The book's author, Margaret Atwood, has never specifically mentioned the group as being the inspiration for her work. A New Yorker profile of the author from 2017 mentions a newspaper clipping as part of her research for the book of a different charismatic Catholic group, People of Hope. Newsweek regrets the error."

"Amazingly, even the editor's note is false," Adams noted. "The People of Hope newspaper clipping that supposedly inspired Atwood comes from an October 1985 Associated Press report, according to NJ.com. By then, Atwood's stupid book had already been published, NJ.com reports, adding that it 'was reviewed twice in the New York Times, in late 1985 and early 1986, on its way to becoming a bestseller.' ”

Adams added: "As indefensible as Newsweek’s refusal to pull the story, which relies now on outright falsehoods and lurid innuendo, is the fact that the magazine is still promoting the initial lie on social media. Naturally, the original version of the erroneous Newsweek report is being treated as canon by anti-President Trump 'resistance' types. They claim the since-corrected article is proof that the White House intends to put on the Supreme Court a woman whose religious affiliation <em>literally</em> inspired The Handmaid’s Tale."

Meanwhile, S.E. Cupp, host of "SE Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN, wrote a Wednesday op-ed titled "Anti-Catholic attacks on Amy Coney Barrett will help get Trump re-elected".

Cupp cited a now-deleted tweet from filmmaker Arlen Parsa which said: “Trump’s likely RBG replacement, Amy Coney Barrett, is a Catholic extremist with 7 children who does not believe employers should be required to provide healthcare coverage for birth control. She wants the rest of American women to be stuck with her extreme lifestyle.”

Cupp noted the tweet for "is its rank and vicious anti-Catholic bigotry," and added: "Imagine replacing 'Catholic' with 'Muslim' or 'Orthodox Jewish,' for example, and it isn’t hard to see why this so offended."

Cupp continued: "Barrett’s association with a charismatic Catholic sect called People of Praise has become the Left’s go-to attack line on the conservative judge. It’s what led Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Dick Durbin to question her objectivity in 2017 during her confirmation to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Feinstein said she was concerned that 'the dogma lives loudly' within Barrett, while Durbin asked whether she was an 'orthodox Catholic.' Both were another way of asking, 'Just how Catholic are you, ma’am?' a question that sounds just as anachronistic as it is in 2020."

By targeting Barrett's Catholicism, Democrats have proven they are no longer the party of John F. Kennedy, Fox News host Laura Ingraham noted on Tuesday.

"Do they even know the history of their own party?" asked Ingraham, who recalled that just 60 years ago, JFK was elected president, becoming the first and, to date, only Roman Catholic to hold that office.

"I fully expect the upcoming confirmation hearing will showcase Democrats' supreme desire to excommunicate the faithful from serving in any prominent capacity in government," Ingraham concluded. "Their actions will once again demonstrate how fundamentally they misconstrue the Constitution, their proper advise and consent role and the function of nine justices who sit on the court itself."

Free Press International