Manuel Miranda is former counsel to GOP Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and founder and chairman of the Third Branch Conference, a coalition of grassroots organizations following judicial issues. He writes a thrice-weekly column in the Wall Street Journal. He has three observations on yesterday's US Senate hearings on the confirmation of John Roberts to the Supreme Court. Read them on page 2.

Also, Roberts is a Catholic. Following are transcripts of overt anti-Catholic questions by Senators Specter and Feinstein yesterday with Roberts' responses:

RELEVANT ROBERTS HEARINGS TRANSCRIPTS 9/13/05

SEN. SPECTER: And let me digress from Roe for just a moment because i think this touches on an issue with ought to be settled. When you talk about your personal views, and as they may relate to your own faith, would you say that your views are the same as those expressed by john kennedy when he was a candidate, and he spoke to the greater houston ministerial association on september of 1960, quote, i do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me, closed quote?

ROBERTS: I agree with that, senator, yes.

SPECTER: And did you have that in mind when you said there is nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying the precedent as well as Casey.

ROBERTS: Well, i think people's personal views on this issue derive from a number of sources. And there is nothing in my personal views based on faith or other sources that would prevent me from a fly -- applying the precedent of the court faithfully under principleses of starry decisus.
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FEINSTEIN: In 1960, there was much debate about President John F. Kennedy's faith and what role Catholicism would play in his administration. At that time, he pledged to address the issues of conscience out of a focus on the national interests, not out of adherence to the dictates of one's religion. And he even said, I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. My question is: Do you?

ROBERTS: Senator, I think the reason we have the two clauses in the Constitution in the First Amendment reflects the framers' experience. Many of them or their immediate ancestors were fleeing religious persecution. They were fleeing established churches. And it makes perfect sense to put those two provisions together: no establishment of religion and guaranteeing free exercise. That reflected the framers' experience.

FEINSTEIN: You can't answer my question yes or no?

ROBERTS: Well, I don't know what you mean by absolute separation of church and state. For example, recently in the Ten Commandments case, the court upheld a monument on the Texas Capitol grounds that had the Ten Commandments in it. They struck down the posting of the Ten Commandments in a Kentucky courthouse. Is it correct to call the monument on the Texas Capitol grounds with the Ten Commandments, is that an absolute separation or is that an accommodation of a particular monument along with others that five of the justices found was consistent with the First Amendment?

So I don't know what that means when you say absolute separation. I do know this: that my faith and my religious beliefs do not play a role in judging. When it comes to judging, I look to the law books and always have. I don't look to the Bible or any other religious source.