As usual Mr. Manchin isn't saying much, beyond a simple statement a week ago that he hasn't yet made up his mind. Without his support Democrats can't force the tie needed to allow Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the deciding vote. Unless of course a Republican senator—say, Lisa Murkowski or Susan Collins—broke ranks too. At the moment the anti-Becerra campaign is leading with the argument that at a time of pandemic he isn't a doctor and has no experience in healthcare. But this isn't much better than the argument that Betsy DeVos wasn't qualified to be education secretary because she had no education degree or experience as a public-school teacher. What cabinet secretaries most need isn't a particular expertise—they have many experts at their disposal—but leadership and judgment. The other broad objection is that Mr. Becerra would use his post to push a left-wing agenda on issues such as abortion, Medicare for All and immigration. No doubt this is true. But how would Republicans like it if a GOP cabinet nominee were deemed unfit simply because she intended to promote pro-life policies? The pity is that the focus on Mr. Becerra's left-wing priorities and lack of healthcare experience deflects attention from the strongest reason for not confirming him. This is his troubling record on the religious-liberty protections in the Constitution, which every cabinet member is sworn to support and defend. Surely it is possible to find a health secretary who checks all the left-wing boxes but doesn't have a record of steamrolling the Constitution when a religious minority gets in his way. In a sense, Mr. Becerra embodies today's threats to free exercise, which often take the form of executive fiat. In a pandemic, it isn't always easy to balance fundamental liberties with reasonable and necessary restrictions. But as the Supreme Court reminded New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in November when it blocked his arbitrary restrictions on religious worship, simply invoking "health" isn't enough. "Even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten," the high court declared. California has imposed some of the nation's most severe restrictions on worship. As the state's attorney general, Mr. Becerra has defended them. Even after the Supreme Court rejected Mr. Cuomo's restrictions as unconstitutional, Mr. Becerra continued to fight for similarly harsh rules in California. After that decision in November 2020, the Pasadena, Calif.-based Harvest Rock church renewed its challenge to California's ban on indoor worship in all but sparsely populated areas of the state.