"The Supreme Court's Catholic Majority": Five Catholic males turned the Court around on abortion

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: The Supreme Court’s Catholic Majority
By ROBIN TONER
Published: April 25, 2007

The five justices who turned the Supreme Court around last week and upheld the ban on “partial birth abortion” had much in common.

All are men. All were nominated by conservative Republican presidents. And, it was widely noted, all are Roman Catholics.

Did their religion matter? Should it even be discussed? In the wake of the 5-4 ruling in Gonzales v. Carhart, these questions have been raised and debated in venues from the blog of the American Constitution Society (where Geoffrey R. Stone, a constitutional law professor, said the justices’ religious identity was “too obvious, and too telling, to ignore,”) to ABC’s “The View,” (where Rosie O'Donnell declared, "How about separation of church and state in America?" according to ABC News.)

The pushback from conservative Catholics was immediate - even pre-emptive. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, declared, “We need more, not fewer, Catholics on the Supreme Court.” On his Web site, the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, an influential conservative, wrote last week, “I expect it is on the minds of many, but so far there has been only marginal public comment on the fact that all five in the Carhart majority are Catholics.” He added, “What can one say? Know-Nothings of the world unite?”

This discussion was probably inevitable: Catholics, for the first time, hold a majority of seats on the Supreme Court, after decades when there were, typically, only one or maybe two “Catholic seats” on the bench. Two of the Catholic justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, were confirmed only in the past two years, in an ideologically charged environment in which all sides were eager for clues on how they might rule on abortion rights and other hot-button issues.

With so much unknown about their legal leanings, their religion became a proxy for both sides -- a source of reassurances for conservatives, and of anxiety for liberals. But the nominees’ supporters discouraged any questions about the role of their faith in the confirmation hearings, essentially arguing that it would amount to an unacceptable “religious test” for public office....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/us/politics/26web-toner.html

[fasttense]

1. The dancing supremes turning the US into a Catholic theocracy

one law at a time.

[smirkymonkey]

24. I could be missing something, but why would the dominant

Protestant establishment in this country try to pack any branch of government with a majority of Catholics?

[shain from kane]

2. And the right wing thought that JFK would get his orders from Rome in the 1960 campaign.

[formercia]

10. When HW Bush became a Knight of Malta (honorary)

that all changed.

He swore loyalty to an organization sworn to destroy our constitututional form of government.

[pampango]

12. The problem is not that five of the justices are Catholic.

The problem is that they are conservative Catholics. If they were conservative "some other religion", the outcome would have been the same. If they were liberal Catholics, the outcome would have been different.

[MLFerrell]

14. "If they were conservative "some other religion", the outcome would have been the same."

Yep. No doubt about it. Religion isn't the problem, per se, conservatism is.

[Scout]

15. whether liberal or conservative, they should not let their religion

determine constitutional law.

[pampango]

16. Agreed. Do we know that is what happened?

Were they following orders from the Pope or were they using conservative philosophy to arrive at their decisions?

[Zynx]

3. That'd make some Founding Fathers roll in their graves

Hey Bush, it's the Court, not the Curia.

[donsu]

4. the Taliban in black robes

woman haters

[Me.]

5. How Many Of Those Justices Are Connected With Opus Dei?

“Even today, liberals are unhappy with the organization's possible influence in upper secular circles, such as the United States Supreme Court, where justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas have been linked to it. Opus Dei's website says it "would like to dispel once and for all the rumours that (former FBI chief) Louis Freeh, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Mel Gibson are members." But critics maintain there are connections, even without membership. Freeh was said to have sent his son to an Opus Dei school, and Scalia's son is an Opus Dei priest.

They don't have to be formal members of Opus Dei, observes DiNicola, to share their mindset. She points out that Cherie Blair, wife of the British prime minister, attended an Opus Dei event.

"Opus Dei is very good at going to people of influence and promoting their own agenda. And sometimes these people don't even know they're doing Opus Dei's bidding."

http://www.canada.com/globaltv/national/story.html?id=db572eef-929e-4986-954f-b4ad923a01e3


“Why, then, is an Alito membership in Opus Dei of major significance? In addition to his activist record on the federal bench and his conservative ideology, Alito is deemed to be a menace to the balance of power as well as the constitutional rights of Americans. Judge Alito's affiliation with Opus Dei may be a factor in the strident opposition from Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, both progressive Roman Catholics who do not approve of the influence of religious dogma on political ideology. The majority of Americans believe in the separation of church and state, while many religious conservatives such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell would transform America into a theocratic state. Robertson and Falwell are staunch supporters of Judge Alito.” Cont…

“The rise to power of religious dogmatists in the guise of an Opus Dei clique on the Supreme Court through the rulings of Scalia, Thomas, and potentially Alito is a legitimate cause for concern not only on Capitol Hill, but also throughout America. Just imagine the outcry if the Supreme Court had four radical Islamicists, four zealous Zionists or four fixated followers of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. The case of Samuel Alito raises a serious question: is George Bush attempting to pack the Supreme Court with religious extremists?

If Alito is confirmed, his presence will create a majority of five Catholic justices on the US Supreme Court. Justice Anthony Kennedy is a liberal Catholic, while the recently appointed Chief Justice, John Roberts, is another deeply conservative Catholic jurist whose devout religious views have also given rise to speculation involving Opus Dei. Alito would bring to four the total of ultra-conservative Catholics on the US Supreme Court, forming an alliance that would be legal, judicial and religious.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/carmichael01302006.html

[leftchick]

26. yes indeed

I am not sure if the NYT article mentioned it but that is the crux of the situation. As I catholic I hate what Opus Dei has done to the church and apparently to our country. :(

[Madspirit]

6. ....and people wonder

People wonder how I could start a poll saying men should keep their fucking noses out of my uterus. Jeez. ...and why is our Supreme Court run by Theocrats? Argh.

Lee

[myrna minx]

7. Lee...

:hi: :rofl:

[shain from kane]

8. coulda, woulda, shoulda?

[IronLionZion]

19. bwahaha!

:evilgrin: :rofl:

[Madspirit]

9. K&R...n/t

[firefox_fan]

11. But but... Why are there 5 male Catholic judges?

[formercia]

13. Opus Dei considers women to be subservient.

thus not qualified to hold a position of power.

[DKRC]

23. Sounds like the same Southern Baptist bs I was raised under. nt

[OneBlueSky]

17. not so good for Protestants, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and others . . .

do they still count? . . .

[geardaddy]

20. And extremely bad for Muslims

[Madspirit]

18. kick...n/t

[IronLionZion]

21. Some of the most liberal Democrats are Roman Catholic

(Kennedy, Kerry, Leahy, Kucinich, etc.)

So this pro-choice Catholic man says religion is not the problem here. The problem is that Republican presidents loaded the court with mouth-breathing conservative extremists who want to take our country backwards.

While I am very disappointed with my Catholic Democratic senator and pleased with my Jewish Republican senator on this issue, if we had a Democratic president, it wouldn't have come to this.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. Better stock up on birth control now, that's all I'm sayin'...

It's not going to remain legal for long.

[fudge stripe cookays]

25. Yeah...

never mind those of us with husbands who've been snipped. I take birth control so my ovaries don't explode.

When birth control becomes illegal, I'll once again get to deal with the horrific pain of endometriosis and the monster cysts that like to burst in my girlie parts. Thanks assholes!

[Warren DeMontague]

28. Yup. You and my ex, too. Her abdomen pain was bad enough even WITH the pill.

But the bottom line is, even if the ONLY reason the pill were out there was that so folks could have consequence-free sex in all manner of lusty, biblically unsanctioned combinations...

...it STILL wouldn't be any of these numbnuts' business.

[fudge stripe cookays]

29. Exactly.

God forbid women actually be able to enjoy careers and sex like men have been able to throughout history.

[dsc]

27. William Brennan was a Catholic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Brennan

[Danascot]

30. Damn, who could have predicted

they would rule to restict women's rights!???