America’s Constitution requires no qualifications for Supreme Court justices, but a culture-warring Christian organization wants to change that by requiring justices to have “a biblical worldview,” a proposal that may violate the Constitution’s ban on religious tests for office holders.
The proposal comes from the Center for Judicial Renewal, an initiative of the American Family Association, a $25 million organization founded in 1977 to promote public decency through boycotts and political activism. The center says it is “strategically restoring the judiciary to its proper role.”
AFA says 17 conservative activist Christian leaders have signed on to support its proposed “Presidential Pledge to Nominate Constitutionalist Justices.”
That pledge states: “The below signers desire that any future president only nominate Supreme Court justices with the best long-term, demonstrable record of commitment to the constitutional role of judges, which is to decide cases according to the original meaning of the Constitution and legislative texts, and to never legislate from the bench.”
“Originalism” is a favorite litmus test for politically conservative politicians to impose on judgeship appointments. Typically, that means the potential justice pledges to interpret the Constitution and other laws in light of their original meanings and ignore later interpretations such as context and culture.
This pledge, however, imposes a “biblical worldview” on top of Originalism.
Phillip Jauregui
Phillip Jauregui, who previously served as legal counsel to Ten Commandments judge Roy Moore of Alabama, leads the center and its worldview project, explained: “The greatest predicter of their faithful and constitutional performance on the bench is their ‘worldview’ or ‘Christian faith.’”
This perspective first was reported by Right Wing Watch, an outlet of the progressive advocacy group People for the American Way, which said: “The rightwing movement’s long-term plan to use domination of the federal courts to achieve their political agenda — and a restructuring of our constitutional order to repeal the New Deal — highlights the importance of the Biden White House and Democratic Senate leaders continuing to fill federal vacancies with excellent, fair-minded nominees.”
The 17 signers of the biblical worldview pledge include Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council; Michele Bachmann, who works with James Dobson Family Institute and serves as dean of Pat Robertson’s Regent University; Christian nationalist historian David Barton; and representatives of Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, Intercessors for America, Patriot Academy and Christian legal groups First Liberty and Thomas More Society.
The center says its “dedicated team of researchers has thoroughly completed 10,000 hours of research on federal judicial prospects in 11 vital areas, including faith and worldview” to come up with its list of recommended Supreme Court justices, which includes these three conservative Christians:
- Morse Tan, dean of Liberty University’s law school
- Mark Martin, former dean of the law school at Pat Robertson’s Regent University
- Kristen Waggoner, who has no judicial experience but leads the Christian legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom
Justice candidates that lack a “biblical worldview” are relegated to a “red list” of candidates AFA urges GOP leaders to avoid.
AFA says the Center for Judicial Renewal was founded in March 2024. The center is part of AFA’s political arm — AFA Action — which “works to inform and mobilize voters and government officials to align policy with biblical and constitutional principles.”
The center is led by attorney Jauregui, who says he received a warm welcome for his “biblical worldview” test at the Pray Vote Stand Summit, the annual fall gathering organized by the Family Research Council. Jauregui presented his proposal from the main stage at the 2024 summit and in a 2023 optional session.
George Barna
The language of a “biblical worldview” was popularized by evangelical pollster George Barna, who said in 2021 only 6% of Americans hold to his definition of such a worldview.
Barna works with Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview, which was founded in 2021, and the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. He no longer has any affiliation with the research company he founded, Barna Research.
Religious tests for public officials were common in England before the American Revolution, and they were common in America, too, before the Constitution prohibited such tests.
“At the time the United States Constitution was adopted, religious qualifications for holding office also were pervasive throughout the states,” says the National Constitution Center. “Delaware’s Constitution, for example, required government officials to ‘profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost.’”
But the Founding Fathers’ commitment to religious freedom led them to oppose such tests: “Notwithstanding this almost unanimous state consensus, the Framers of the federal Constitution prohibited religious tests for federal office-holding,” says the National Constitution Center.
Article VI of the U.S. Constitution says: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
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