Senator Patrick Leahy D-VT, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, used Judge Conrad's comments on Prejean to justify why he refused to schedule a hearing for Conrad. He said that Conrad was "anti-Catholic", which enraged Senate Republicans. The Republicans countered that Conrad, himself a Catholic, had merely criticized Prejean for "the near total contempt displayed for the Roman Catholic Church." In short, Conrad was defending the Catholic Church from the anti-Catholic comments he believed the nun to have made.