August 6, 2010
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6-3-0
As of yesterday, with the confirmation of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court, we now have six Catholics, three Jews, and zero Protestants on the nation’s highest court. I don’t know if this religious composition will have any significant impact on how they rule [the decision a couple of weeks ago not to hear a case that would have granted sovereign immunity to the Vatican in sex abuse cases makes me think it won't have much of an effect at all, at least as far as the Catholic Church is concerned], but this is a historic first for the United States.
What’s remarkable about the current situation is that Catholics and Jews–more than any other religious groups–have suffered from prejudice and discrimination pretty much all through our history. It’s ironic that the two groups that have been persecuted now completely dominate the American judiciary. Another touch of irony is that I recently got into an argument with my cousin about having all those Catholics on the court. He’s a very serious and very “with it” Catholic. He’s also a lawyer, and his father was a federal judge. I maintained that having all those Catholics on the Court was potentially dangerous, and he maintained I was “full of shit.” We’re still great friends and probably always will be, but we relish “intellectual” arguments. Unfortunately, we disagree about so few things that arguments are hard to come by.
ED
Comments (1)
The Supreme Court is an interesting beast to say the least. The courts are probably the last place where politics should come into play, yet for some reason, the courts, especially the Supreme Court seems to be the dominated by political beliefs. That being said, it is a very cool building, I had a chance to go inside while I was in D.C. last year, I was in awe while I was in there.