Tom Feeney: “If my colleague will yield on that point, I just said that the people that are criticizing Miguel Estrada, when they do…”

“If my colleague will yield on that point, I just said that the people that are criticizing Miguel Estrada, when they do not even want to have a vote, they want to suggest we ought to have these weird interpretations of the establishment clause, and yet the very people that enacted this Constitution, in my hometown where I was born, in Philadelphia, thanks to Ben Franklin, a great Philadelphian, who said this at the Constitutional Convention when he suggested that they ought to begin every day, as they put together the most wonderful document that ever defined the relationship between free individuals and their government, here is what he said as they suggested that they start with prayer. He said, How can it be, basically referring to Matthew, that a sparrow cannot fall to the earth without God's watchful eye, and yet we can create this document without his watchful assistance? I am paraphrasing Mr. Franklin because, of course, we do not have the specific records from that convention. But the bottom line is that the people who put our Constitution together do not want us here today, as they lie above us in heaven for their great deeds, they do not want us to allow the legislative branch to hijack the judicial branch and impose a litmus test that judges have to ignore, the written words of either statutes or the Constitution. We are doing our constitutional duty by speaking out, and I thank the gentleman for the opportunity to be here.”