With the addition of a Catholic Chief Justice to the United States Supreme Court, and what appears to be a confirmation battle for an evangelical Christian, one has to wonder how long it will be until the Religious Right achieves its long-held dream of a customized Supreme Court. The fact that James Dobson, leader of the far-right organization Focus on the Family has publicly supported nominee Harriet Miers due to her faith is a cause for serious concern for those of us who value the freedom of conscience in spiritual matters.

In the hope that Judge Roberts would not be confirmed by the Senate, I sent an e-mail to the seven Democratic Senators on the Judiciary Committee that asked him hard questions concerning judicial philosophy.

"After four days of the confirmation process, we as a nation know as much about Judge John Roberts as we did before the hearings began; which, in my opinion, is almost nothing. As a woman and as an American citizen, I find this lack of information deeply troubling. We all saw that Judge Roberts declined to answer what many would consider simple questions, even those requiring only a "yes" or "no" response. One cannot help wondering why.

My main concern, however, is Judge Roberts’ ambiguity about the most important part of the U.S. Constitution. For me, that is the establishment clause of the First Amendment, more informally known as the separation of church and state. He made that obvious when he dodged the question by Senator Feinstein. She quoted the late President John F. Kennedy’s statement: "‘I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.’ My question is: Do you?" When Judge Roberts’ attempt to dodge it failed, Senator Feinstein pointedly asked, "you can’t answer my question yes or no?" His response was, "well, I don’t know what you mean by absolute separation of church and state." He went on to cite two recent Supreme Court decisions; one invalidating a Ten Commandments display in a Kentucky courthouse, the other upholding a Commandments monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol. He ended by reiterating, "so I don’t what that means when you say absolute separation."

Frankly, such statements are an insult to the intelligence of every American citizen. Judge Roberts has been lauded for his "brilliant legal mind," and his "outstanding legal career," among many other attributes presented by both sides of the political spectrum. So can the American public really be expected to believe that this man, with a brilliant legal mind, who has been nominated for the position of Chief Justice of the United States, honestly does not know the meaning of the word "absolute?" Come on! Although we all couldn’t be nominated for Chief Justice, we are hardly idiots.

My reason for bringing this up as a primary concern is a simple one. Two of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, believed in a bill of rights. In fact, Mr. Madison was adamantly opposed to a Constitution that did not include such a bill. The very first amendment of our Bill of Rights begins with the following words: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof...."