Thank you so much for your post!I would add but, subject to religious beliefs as well. That trumps law, doesn't it? And this is a case certain creationist want to see processed.
Interesting that you should bring that up. Oath of office is a promise to God which must be kept, if a person is a Christian.
A classic case is Justice Scalia, who is Catholic and has to rule on abortion and the death penalty. He ruled with the majority in Planned Parenthood v. Casey despite his Catholic beliefs.
And here is Scalia again Justice Scalia vs. the Pope - Should every Catholic judge in America quit? By Dahlia Lithwick
For the second time in two months, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has pitted his formidable brain against the Catholic Church and its increasingly strong stand against the death penalty. Addressing students at Georgetown University last week, Scalia argued that Catholic judges who believe the church's teaching that capital punishment is wrong should not be on the bench, stating that "any Catholic jurists (with such concerns) ... would have to resign." The comment didn't win him many fans. Catholics objected to Scalia's public renunciation of the pope's teachings. Religious judges balked at the implication that they cannot separate their religious convictions from their judicial duties. And many of us came away with the uneasy sense that such personal revelations by Supreme Court justices about ideology and religion compromise judicial neutrality.