Author Topic: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?  (Read 2144 times)

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Online Wingnut

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Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« on: September 22, 2020, 03:12:31 pm »


Following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday, Sept. 18, President Trump promised to swiftly nominate her replacement for the ninth seat on the Supreme Court. By Monday, two names had emerged as frontrunners for the nomination: Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa. Both women, who were confirmed to the United States Court of Appeals under Mr. Trump, are practicing Catholics and have spokenpublicly about the role their faith plays in their judicial careers.

Before the death of Justice Ginsburg at age 87, the Supreme Court included five Catholic justices (Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor and Brett Kavanaugh) and three Jewish justices (Ms. Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan). The ninth justice, Neil Gorsuch, was raised Catholic but reportedly attends an Episcopal church.



If either Ms. Barrett or Ms. Lagoa were nominated and confirmed, six out of nine Supreme Court justices would be Catholic.

Catholic justices are frequently nominated by Republican presidents, including Mr. Trump, George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush. The current court’s exception is Ms. Sotomayor, who was appointed in May 2009 by President Barack Obama.


Two-thirds of the current Supreme Court were raised in the Catholic faith, though Catholics make up only about 20 percent of the U.S. population. (Catholics are also overrepresented on Capitol Hill: 31 percent of the 115th Congress, when sworn in last year, identified as Catholic.)



https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/07/18/why-do-catholics-make-majority-supreme-court

Footnote: Of the 114 justices who have been appointed to the court, 91 have been from various Protestant denominations, 13 have been Catholics (one other justice, Sherman Minton, converted to Catholicism after leaving the Court).
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Offline Absalom

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2020, 05:48:55 pm »
'Cuz they're much better looking!

Online DCPatriot

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2020, 05:55:18 pm »
Because Catholic parochial schools, high schools and colleges are private and provide a 1st Class education, intellectually, morally and spiritually.
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Offline Jazzhead

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2020, 06:13:43 pm »
Because Catholic parochial schools, high schools and colleges are private and provide a 1st Class education, intellectually, morally and spiritually.

That's right.   Catholics (and Jews for that matter)  seek to educate for the whole of life.   Public schools that don't teach right from wrong are a poor breeding ground for a judge.
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Offline montanajoe

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2020, 06:21:39 pm »
As one who benefited from a Catholic education from grade school thru some college I've wondered about  this every time a nomination comes up ....will it be another Catholic...looks like this time we might even get a Domer...go Irish... happy77

Offline Sighlass

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2020, 06:42:24 pm »
Maybe because they are considered lukewarm if anything religiously now days.
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Offline sneakypete

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2020, 06:46:18 pm »
Maybe because they are considered lukewarm if anything religiously now days.

@Sighlass

Or maybe because religion is seen as no big deal one way or the other these days?

Which is as it should be,although personally I would like to see an atheist or an agnostic to add some balance. The lack of religious convictions alone is  not and should not be either a qualifier or a dis-qualifier,though.


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« Last Edit: September 22, 2020, 06:47:21 pm by sneakypete »
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Offline Sighlass

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #7 on: September 22, 2020, 06:54:29 pm »
@Sighlass

Or maybe because religion is seen as no big deal one way or the other these days?

Which is as it should be,although personally I would like to see an atheist or an agnostic to add some balance. The lack of religious convictions alone is  not and should not be either a qualifier or a dis-qualifier,though.


Weeze Americans,bitches!

Sadly you are right, it is seen as no big deal.... and you basically just saw what a atheist or an agnostic Jew (she only acknowledged being Jewish when it suited her) was like on the court.
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Offline unite for individuality

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #8 on: September 22, 2020, 08:31:13 pm »
Before the death of Justice Ginsburg at age 87, the Supreme Court included five Catholic justices (Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor and Brett Kavanaugh) and three Jewish justices (Ms. Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan). The ninth justice, Neil Gorsuch, was raised Catholic but reportedly attends an Episcopal church.

If either Ms. Barrett or Ms. Lagoa were nominated and confirmed, six out of nine Supreme Court justices would be Catholic.

I think it concerns me more that ALL NINE current Justices (including Ginsburg) are graduates of Harvard or Yale.
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Offline sneakypete

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2020, 08:32:23 pm »
Sadly you are right, it is seen as no big deal.... and you basically just saw what a atheist or an agnostic Jew (she only acknowledged being Jewish when it suited her) was like on the court.

@Sighlass

So.....,since I am an agnostic,I guess you see ME as being politically aligned with the DNC?
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Offline Absalom

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2020, 08:49:49 pm »
Because Catholic parochial schools, high schools and colleges are private and provide a 1st Class education, intellectually, morally and spiritually.
-----------------------------
Essentially a truism.
Incidentally, does anyone know what religion Pontiff Frankie adheres to?????

Online libertybele

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2020, 09:10:49 pm »
I think it concerns me more that ALL NINE current Justices (including Ginsburg) are graduates of Harvard or Yale.

That is something that I am just recently becoming aware of and it is a concern.  Roberts attended Harvard who was appointed by W. Bush who attended Yale.

Ginsburg registered at Harvard, and later transferred, but she was appointed by Clinton who attended Yale.

I haven't researched the rest of the justices ....
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #12 on: September 23, 2020, 06:46:32 am »
Because Catholic parochial schools, high schools and colleges are private and provide a 1st Class education, intellectually, morally and spiritually.
Yep! Still teaching students TO think. not WHAT to think.

(Notice they didn't ask why 1/3 of the court would be Jewish. )

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #13 on: September 23, 2020, 09:29:16 am »
-----------------------------
Essentially a truism.
Incidentally, does anyone know what religion Pontiff Frankie adheres to?????

@Absalom

LOL!   Well, he was a Jesuit, so there's that...
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Offline verga

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #14 on: September 23, 2020, 02:37:43 pm »
Wait for the hearing to see what DiFI tries
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Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #15 on: September 23, 2020, 02:41:11 pm »
Wait for the hearing to see what DiFI tries
She is 87, same age as Ginsburg reached.

Perhaps she will emulate her in doing the country a favor?
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Offline sneakypete

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #16 on: September 23, 2020, 03:43:28 pm »
Yep! Still teaching students TO think. not WHAT to think.

(Notice they didn't ask why 1/3 of the court would be Jewish. )

@Smokin Joe

As long as they are qualified,what's wrong with that?
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Offline bilo

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #17 on: September 23, 2020, 04:23:16 pm »
Born Again Christians are just to scary for the elites.
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Offline sneakypete

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #18 on: September 23, 2020, 04:47:04 pm »
Born Again Christians are just to scary for the elites.

@bilo


I'm not one of the elites,and I find "Born Again Christians (or "born again" anything else) more than a little disturbing. Mostly because THEY are disturbing.
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Offline Absalom

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #19 on: September 23, 2020, 06:42:35 pm »
@Absalom
LOL!   Well, he was a Jesuit, so there's that...
----------------------------
On a serious note, following the 5th century Fall of Rome, the Catholic Church
became the driver of creativity, innovation and vision across Europe;
as emerging nation/states struggled to survive and develop.
Producing some of history's greatest minds, the Church was the catalyst
behind the late Medieval Era, the Renaissance and the Counter-Reformation,
each of which advanced Mankind.
In our time, Religions, all of them; are in obvious decline and the current Pope
is the poster boy for that cold reality in the Church of Rome.
He is light years beyond a total embarrassment in terms of action, thought and words.


Offline unite for individuality

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #20 on: September 23, 2020, 07:00:57 pm »
On a serious note, following the 5th century Fall of Rome, the Catholic Church
became the driver of creativity, innovation and vision across Europe;
as emerging nation/states struggled to survive and develop.
Producing some of history's greatest minds, the Church was the catalyst
behind the late Medieval Era, the Renaissance and the Counter-Reformation,
each of which advanced Mankind.

Scientists have analyzed the bones of people who died in past centuries.
They found that the average person was better nourished AFTER the fall of Rome!

The fall of Rome was a catastrophe only to fans of big government.
If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion,
mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
   -- John Stuart Mill

Here are the 10 RINOs who voted to impeach Trump on Jan. 13, 2021 - NEVER forget!
WY  Liz Cheney      SC 7  Tom Rice             WA 4  Dan Newhouse    IL 16  Adam Kinzinger    OH 16  Anthony Gonzalez
MI 6  Fred Upton    WA 3  Jaime Herrera Beutler    MI 3  Peter Meijer       NY 24  John Katko       CA 21  David Valadao

Offline Absalom

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #21 on: September 23, 2020, 09:23:36 pm »
Scientists have analyzed the bones of people who died in past centuries.
They found that the average person was better nourished AFTER the fall of Rome!
The fall of Rome was a catastrophe only to fans of big government.
[/quote]
-------------------------------
Some sorta joke, I suppose. He-he-he.
Anyway, Rome endured from 750 BC till it's fall in 475 AD, some 12 Centuries, while we
who assert we are the greatest, are a tad past two!!!
Rome survived and thrived because they anointed/embraced the greatest who ever walked Planet Earth, the Ancient Greeks, as their mentors/teachers.
Both created Western Civilization which encompassed Art, including Literature (Drama, the Novel and Poetry), Architecture, History as well as Science including Botany, Biology,
Geometry, Medicine, Logic and Physics.
Two of their minor creations included competitive athletics (the Olympic Games) and representative governance (the Republic; defined by Plato)
The Ancients must be beyond amusement witnessing our daily Buffoon and Clown Show
nudging each other w/the remark," Can't wait to hear what they'll say next?????"
« Last Edit: September 23, 2020, 09:35:35 pm by Absalom »

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #22 on: September 23, 2020, 09:33:45 pm »

Some sorta joke, I suppose.
Anyway, Rome endured from 750 BC till it's fall in 475 AD, some 12 Centuries.
We, who assert we are the greatest, are a tad past two!!!
Rome survived and thrived because they anointed the greatest who ever walked Planet Earth,
the Greeks, as their mentors/teachers.
Both created Western Civilization which encompassed Art, including Literature(Drama, the Novel and Poetry), Architecture, History a well as Science including Botany, Biology, Geometry, Medicine, Logic and Physics.
Two minor creations oncluded cometitive athletics9te Olympic Games) and representative governmnce(the Republic)

There are several reasons advanced for the fall of Rome: the decline of the military, increase in the savage hordes. But I got my own opinion. I think it was those Roman baths. Roman generals didn't even bother to fight their own wars no more. Swam around in scented oils, lollygagging with the slaves, stuffing themselves with larks' tongues.
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Offline Absalom

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #23 on: September 23, 2020, 09:41:25 pm »
There are several reasons advanced for the fall of Rome: the decline of the military, increase in the savage hordes. But I got my own opinion. I think it was those Roman baths. Roman generals didn't even bother to fight their own wars no more. Swam around in scented oils, lollygagging with the slaves, stuffing themselves with larks' tongues.
---------------------
Gibbon, a world ranking historian, put the blame on Christianity/Catholicism
which muted the warlike impulse of the Romans.

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?
« Reply #24 on: September 23, 2020, 09:47:42 pm »
@Smokin Joe

As long as they are qualified,what's wrong with that?
As long as they are qualified, there is nothing wrong with that. Which is my point.

Fifty years ago, the quality of education for children in Parochial (Catholic) and other private schools was far superior to the public schools. I went to both, and public school was easy, unless you pissed off a particular teacher. (In that case, everything had to be so dead solid perfect that there was no way it could be graded down in order to just pass instead of getting an 'A'.  I won't say I never vexed a Parochial school teacher, but I can honestly say I don't believe that was ever reflected in my grade.)
But let me trot out something that may be misinterpreted, and preemptively, I want to say it is an observation, not some religious prejudice.
The Catholics and Jews I know were raised with a more strict religious regimen, and that discipline carried over into the academic part of their lives as well. The local Protestant sects did not require church on Sundays, every Sunday, and while there were some excellent Protestant students as well, that was more the determination of their parents that those children not grow up to be sharecroppers or be doomed to a life of manual labor in the fields or on oyster boats.
The idea that their child could grow up to be a doctor, dentist, or a lawyer (or other respectable professions at the time) often drove parents to drive their children, white or black, to excel. For blacks and 'poor' whites, the key was to either get a scholarship to college, whether academically or through sports (and it seemed as if the sports scholarships were more common for public school students), or to enlist, serve, and upon discharge use the GI Bill to go to college. If you were middle class, you didn't get some of the loan or other guarantees you could get if you were poorer, and only careful financial planning and management would make college affordable, short of going the GI Bill route or a scholarship.
Either way, the ticket to success required discipline, hard work, and often luck, and many were derailed along the way through injuries in the case of sports, through their experience in the service, the usual distractions of drugs or alcohol, inadvertently starting a family, or other misfortune. But the students who were most disciplined, through either parental insistence on excellence throughout their school years, or with religious backgrounds which kept them from the ordinary pitfalls which derailed so many aspirations, were those most likely to succeed.

That those raised with strict doctrinal religious guidance would make jurists of the caliber of SCOTUS is no surprise,whether I agree with their interpretation of the Law or not.
 
While that is not to say there are not those who were neither Catholic nor Jewish who could muster that combination of formative adherence to academic and/or religious discipline, it is not really surprising that those who were raised 40 or 50 years ago come from either of the two backgrounds.
 
In a Nation which according to Wikipedia where religions claimed (not necessarily strictly practiced) are 43% Protestant, 20% Catholic, 2% Jewish, 2% LDS, 26% unaffiliated, and 1% or less each of other (Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, and others) for 6% total, and 2% who just didn't answer, either the 1/3 of the court that is Jewish or the 2/3 Catholic are representations of religious backgrounds far in excess of the respective representation in the overall population. Neither is the result of some Zionist or Papist conspiracy, but instead, the result of the discipline and hard work in those formative environments carried over into the professional lives of those justices. 
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis