Catholics on the Court

Justice Alito is concerned about the media and political focus on the number of Catholics sitting on the Supreme Court.

“There has been so much talk lately about the number of Catholics serving on the Supreme Court,” Alito said in a speech to the Justinian Society. “This is one of those questions that does not die.”

I’ve been asked about this often on the air and in person, but by people with different concerns about those Catholics. He addresses the side that criticizes them for potentially ruling on cases according to the Catholic Catechism.

Alito complained about “respectable people who have seriously raised the questions in serious publications about whether these individuals could be trusted to do their jobs.”

He said he thought the Constitution settled the question long ago with its guarantee of religious freedom.

Right. Which is the same answer I give to people concerned whether Catholic justices informed by their faith will apply it enough to cases they decide on social moral issues.

Notre Dame law professor Richard W. Garnett echoed Alito’s comment that the religion of qualified justices will not determine their views of pending cases, even if their experiences might shade it.

“It’s not the calling of a Catholic judge to enforce the teachings of the faith. It’s the calling of a Catholic judge, as well as he or she can, to interpret and apply the laws of the political community,” Garnett said.

The critics to whom Alito was referring are generally using the Catholic faith as a bullseye on the backs of those justices they perceive to be too conservative for their social agenda.

Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said he believes the focus on the religious makeup of the court is really a ruse.

“I think it comes down to one issue, it’s abortion,” he said. “The people who are complaining about Alito and Roberts are the same people who would have nine Nancy Pelosis on the Supreme Court who are pro-choice Catholics.”