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To: linda_22003

It's not a question of what I want.

It's a question of what people ARE, and what they believe to be true about the world, and about the universe.

There is no requirement that a judge be patriotic. Patriotism is not required by law or the Constitution.
And yet, we do expect men who serve as judges to not be utterly neutral and indifferent to the nation. We expect them to be patriotic. We expect their views about country to "contaminate" their legal thinking, to the point that they will not willfully issue a decision that they know will severely damage the United States in the face of its foes just because they think that, logically, the law demands it.

If you really believe in God, and really believe that God has stated a clear opinion, and that good and evil are determined by where you stand, you don't damn yourself to Hell in order to follow some human custom. Nobody would.

I think that the REASON Alito and Roberts oppose abortion, always have, is BECAUSE they are Catholic. That's where they learned it. They can dress up their opposition in legal robes and legal arguments, but the root of those arguments lies in what they believe life is, and where that belief came from. Of course a good judge is not going to stand up there and rule "Rome says..."
A good judge can find PLENTY of legal principles within American law to justify outlawing partial birth abortion.

But a good judge can also find plenty of legal principles by which to uphold abortion.

So, why the difference? The moral opinion of the judge. There are two sides to every case. Why the judge chooses one set of legal arguments which determine the outcome, as opposed the other, has to do with the moral scale within them. Devout men like Alito and Roberts didn't develop their own moral scales utterly independent of the religion they grew up with, and oh-by-the-way just happen to discover, as adults, that their independently-arrived-at positions just happen to coincide with Catholic teachings. They believe as they do BECAUSE they are Catholics. And that inflects everything else they do.

The same is true of committed Democrats, committed liberals, committed free marketeers, committed Jews.

So, do I think that judges "should" rule according to Catholic principles? Not as such. Do I think that devout Catholic judges WILL rule in ways that are predictably Catholic? Of course. They will rule justly, according to law, as they see it. But what they think "just" is, will be determined by their own inner scales of right and wrong. And in Alito and Roberts, those scales were PUT THERE by the Church as they grew up.

There is never anything so direct as "Benedict rules, and therefore I must..." You'll never hear a leftist say "Marx says, therefore I must..." either, but the behavior of leftists on any issue is utterly, dreadfully predictable. So is the behavior of devout Catholics on abortion. You know how they are going to rule. You just don't know the legal arguments they'll use to get to the foregone conclusion.


82 posted on 01/31/2006 2:34:36 PM PST by Vicomte13 (Et alors?)
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To: Vicomte13

Thanks for the clarification; I was interested in whether or not you thought that was a good thing, and you answered. :)


146 posted on 02/01/2006 4:56:05 AM PST by linda_22003
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