Posted on 01/13/2006 11:44:32 AM PST by Borges
If Samuel Alito Jr. is elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court following this week's hearings, he would become the fifth Roman Catholic justice on the bench, marking the first Catholic majority in history at a time of heightened debate on abortion, same-sex marriage and religious liberties.
A fifth Catholic on the court also would mark a milestone in U.S. religious history, illustrating the increasing diversity of faith in a nation whose founding fathers were predominantly Protestant.
And it would reflect the evolution of interfaith relations since 1960, when many Americans questioned whether presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy could lead the nation while remaining faithful to the Catholic Church.
"For American Catholics in particular, it's a profound moment," said Eric Michael Mazur, associate professor of religion at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I give up.
You must have been an arts major.
I agree that random chance (or more likely political dynamics) could one day deal a hand where 7 out of 9 SC Justics could be, for example, American Indian.
But statistics based on demographics sure wouldn't figure much in that equation.
No, I believe that is also part of it. My only quabble with you is over the word, "too." :^D
Jews have 612 laws they should follow. Catholics or Orthodox have about 32. Both religions teach people to pay attention to what they are doing or learning. That's all. God and Jesus told people to stop running around the landscape like asses and learn a couple of things so they could improve their lives. And we are still running around like asses with an even shorter attention span. But at least we stopped killing each other. Maybe the 10 Commandments are a long-term process?
Or even better, Edith Jones.
Actually, this surprised me, Edmund!
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=82688
If Circuit Court Judge Alito is confirmed, perhaps the Supremes can immediately take up the issue of excommunicating Mr. Justice Kennedy from their Court?
F
;-o)
85? There is a God.
Maybe a politically correct socially engineered quota system would appease your sense of fairness? Why should the best, brightest and most capable merit advancement at the expense of fairness... If fairness was not such an undeniable truth I would suspect bias...
It doesn't help matters that this denomination 1) has taken a very polarized stand on a major issue likely to come before the court AND has decreed that public servants are obligated to vote according the church's teachings, regardless of the views of the majority of their constituents, and presumably therefore regardless of the underlying law as well; and 2) this denomination has quite recently been learned to have been involved in large scale organized crime for the past few decades, with its U.S. leaders conspiring to enable child molestation to continue, and to prevent child molestors from being prosecuted in accordance with this country's laws.
It doesn't help matters that this is not an evolution thread -much harder to prop up hyperbola without being able to wield the "science" facade to cloak opinion as fact...
One fact you miss is that the majority of "child molestation" cases was actually homosexual predation and that the Church is taking action in this regard -another polarized stand on a major issue -the homosexual disorder.
In fact I think the 3rd possibility I offered is much closer to the actual cause --- that is that Catholic legal scholars tend to be more conservative than others, and all but two individuals nominated for the court since LBJ was president have been nominated by Republicans. In other words, among the pool of legal minds that a Republican president would be disposed to nominate, Catholics were likely to represent a majority.
Also understand that the word "probability" does not mean certainty. It simply means of assigning a percentage of chance that a particular outcome will occur after x number of trials. Looking at it blindly, without ideological filters, a population that is 20% of the total becoming 5 out of 9 in any given sample, it is not a low probability outcome.
Try the jelly bean test. Put 25 red jelly beans in a jar and 75 of whatever other color you want and do your tests. Keep grabbing 9 at a time. You will find that before long, you will have 5 red jellybeans and 4 of the others.
You make me tired. Good night.
Oh, for Heaven's sake. Give it a rest!
If there end up being five REAL Catholics on that court, then Roe vs. Wade WILL be overturned.
"Interesting. There must be a sociological reason for Catholics to be so predominant on the Supreme Court."
There certainly is. Many of us are Jesuit-trained masters of logic and argument.
And therefore you probably have more in common with our "protestant" founders than most...logic doesn't seem to be popular, as of late.
Many of the "mainline" protestant denominations today are flat out socialistic.
A devout Catholic, but very liberal, friend of mine cast her first Republican vote ever in 04. The non-Catholic positions of "Catholic" John Kerry were more than she could stomach. She hadn't expected as much from Protestants so had been able to vote for them. I wonder how many other Catholics did the same.
86 in April.
If a majority of Catholics in the general population were as faithful as the incipient Catholic majority on the Supreme Court (a slight shamed aversion of the eyes from the recklessly unstable Justice Anthony Kennedy is called for here), this nation would be in fantastic shape.
In my opinion, the problem with the United States isn't that there are too many Catholics in the general population or on the Supreme Court. It is that there are far too few faithful Catholics in the general population and in the various legislatures. And I speak as a Mormon.
yep, I'm looking for Stevens to check out one way or the other before GWB is out of office...which will put the conservatives in a position to be in the majority for the next twenty or so years...maybe we can get back to reality! LOL
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