Should it be permissible to ask a political candidate about their religious beliefs?

1998 Barrett believed that her "moral impossibility of enforcing capital punishment", driven by her "church's teaching on moral matters" meant that she should recuse herself from capital punishment cases. "we need to know whether judges are legally disqualified from hearing cases that their consciences would let them decide", she wrote.

how is this different with abortion?

and again, i have to say - with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder - as a nonreligious person, i don't get a secret box where i can hide the real drivers for my beliefs.

why does barrett get a secret box for her beliefs which cannot be opened, and i don't?

...(all in the context of POLITICAL OFFICE, and for the people who have the authority to change the interpretation of laws. i am not talking about why it isn't ok to ask the supermarket cashier if they worship jesus)

(no one ever answers that, which i suppose means that i'm probably saying something bigoted against religious people, but that no one wants to say that because i've been harmed by bigoted religious people and that's obviously why i have a chip on my shoulder)

i don't get a secret box where i can hide the real drivers for my beliefs.

hmmm. maybe the location and contents of this box is also a secret from you.

i would grant her a secret box if she deserved it, but she's been writing about catholic beliefs and the law forever (e.g., the death penalty/recusal question), and speaking at functions for "christian law students," being a member of campus anti-abortion organizations as a professor, signing letters about abortion, etc. when someone broadcasts the influence of religion on their professional life to the public, they aren't entitled to shut down questions about it. this is separate from the handmaid lifestyle, which i find personally repugnant but don't really care about as much.

my answer to this question is almost at "if their beliefs seem to influence their decision-making," but not quite, because i'm skeptical of the possibility that you can separate those things, and of whether it's even necessary or desirable. i am not a religious person but it just seems like too much to ask, how do you make beliefs not influence your decision-making, especially if the decisions are on moral issues? i just don't believe in "neutrality" like that, if i did i would probably subscribe to another mystical belief system like originalism or something to try and pretend i was neutral. i would prefer if people stopped lying about this possibility and would practice being more open about the interests influencing their decisions. in my secret box, i also think some people just have bad beliefs.