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04/10: The Roman Catholic Supreme Court

Six members of the United States Supreme Court are Roman Catholic: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. (I don't know how many are practicing Roman Catholics.)

Red Mass before Court Session. from Newsmax.
Amazing. In pre-Civil War America Irish immigrants regularly faced discrimination, and earlier even riots, mostly because they were Roman Catholics. In the same period Protestant organizations raised money for missions in the West by arguing that if Protestants did not make converts on the frontier first, then the Romans were sure to do so, with dire and deadly results for the nation.

In the 1960 presidential election, JFK's Roman Catholicism was an issue.

Several questions come to mind, for which I have no answers. What is it about growing up Roman Catholic that increases the odds of becoming a Supreme Court Justice? Which Justices think with a coherent Roman Catholic world-view and how does that affect their opinions? Which religious traditions are under-represented, compared to the U.S. population?

Comments

photognome wrote:

Hi Gardener

A couple of ideas come to mind -
Do other Christian traditions have anything comparable to RC Canon Law?

For the RC justices what role does the need to formally separate in their own minds their identity as RC and their identity as representatives of a system of laws which is in some significant points in conflict with RC teachings?

It seems to me that these two types of experience call for the ability to keep complex and conflicting legal issues at arms length while at the same time having a detailed knowledge of them.

As you know I spent the first nine years of my education in RC parochial schools - be we were expected to memorize more than to critique or understand.

05/10 14:43:42

Martian Mariner wrote:

<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009...">http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/27/sotomayor.catholic/</a>

The professor interviewed in the above article seems to think that it was the conservative social stances of the Catholic justices which led to their appointment, as 5 of the six were nominated by Republican presidents.

I would be interested in knowing the proportion of RC judges nationwide, to see if the disproportionate representation extends to state and appellate courts. I would imagine so, or else the number of RC justices on the SCOTUS is just astounding.

I also think photognome may be onto something - the RC church has a long tradition of religious law, or theology more legally focused than either Protestant or Orthodox theology. I suppose Judaism would have a similarly legal tradition; I would be curious to see numbers and proportions of Jewish judges, as well.

05/10 17:31:51

an okie gardener wrote:

I suspect that conservative social stances have helped get Roman Catholic Justices nominated. But, why not more Southern Baptist justices, for example? If I really get interested in this issue, I would look at the educational background of the RC Justices to see if Roman Catholic schooling produces more lawyers than other types. The point is well taken that Roman Catholicism has the most comprehensive and well-developed world view in Christianity, embracing all aspects of human life and thought. The runner up is the Reformed tradition (Calvinism).

05/10 19:32:31

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