If the justices think the law is against their Catholic principles, they will follow the law. Their devoutness will be irrelevant.
"If the justices think the law is against their Catholic principles, they will follow the law. Their devoutness will be irrelevant."
Of course that cannot be so.
If one is really devout, one believes in Heaven and Hell.
You don't damn yourself to Hell for a transient cause.
Particularly since it's the job of the justices to say what the law IS, they aren't bound by their own precedents, and will be able to follow the law AND their consciences. Of course their belief system matters.
The first is that Stenberg has to be overturned if SCOTUS is to hold the PBA Act of 2003 constitutional. That brings us back to Casey. My guess is there are 5 votes to do just that.
The second school of thought is that Stenberg does not apply to the PBA Act of 2003 because Congress has explicitly banned an abortion procedure that partially delivers the baby into this world. I suspect that school of thought won't win out because Congress has defined a live baby as one completely delivered.
I have been urging them to change that law for some time now. To no avail of course. :-(