« CourtBriefs for Dec. 9, 2005: Abortion's So Over | Main | LiveCurrent Has Moved! »
December 18, 2005
New Kid on the Catholic Bloc
|
Marci Hamilton holds the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and is the author of "God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law." |
If Samuel Alito joins the Supreme Court next year, Catholics will be a majority of the nine justices. Law scholar Marci Hamilton asks in Current what effect religion will have on the next court. What's more important: faith or training?
If Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. is named to the Supreme Court, there will be five Catholics on the court. Will this make a difference?
The short answer is "no." There is simply no way to predict how any one Catholic is going to vote on an issue. We live in the era of "cafeteria Catholics," which is to say that American Catholics pick and choose among their church's doctrines, especially when the issue is contraception, abortion or premarital sex. The Roman Catholic Church does not and cannot control how American Catholics view social issues. Thus, five Catholics will be about as predictable as any other five Americans in how they vote on hot-button issues.
Click HERE to get the full story.
Posted at December 18, 2005 10:00 PM