No More Catholics On The Court?

[babylonsister]

http://www.anonymousliberal.com/2009/04/no-more-catholics-on-court.html

No More Catholics On The Court?


Here's Maggie Gallagher whining away over The Corner:

After gay marriage, the most religiously committed Americans will be effectively marginalized as a public force—because they cannot act or support the idea that gay unions are marriages. Such people will, if we lose the marriage debate, be treated the way we treat bigots who oppose interracial marriage. Imagine: All it will take to make, say, a judicial nominee unconfirmable will be to establish that they are indeed Catholic .

Oh please. First, it's probably worth pointing out that a hugely disproportionate number of Supreme Court justices are Catholic. A majority in fact (five of the nine). That's pretty good considering only 22% of the U.S. population is Catholic. And given that Supreme Court justices have lifetime tenure, I'm pretty certain that there is approximately zero risk of Catholic Americans being under-represented on the Court any time soon (unlike, say, gay Americans).

Second, it's not as if American Catholics uniformly oppose marriage equality. The eight states with the largest Catholic population by percentage are Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, California, and Connecticut. What do those states have in common? Well, three of them have already legalized gay marriage. And the other five will very likely be the next states to do so.

More importantly, though, the notion that differences of opinion between the Catholic church and U.S. law will somehow render Catholic judicial nominees unconfirmable is demonstrably ludicrous. In addition to opposing gay marriage, the Catholic church also opposes divorce, birth control, abortion, and any number of other things that are permitted by U.S. law. Indeed, the Supreme Court has recognized a constitutional right to many of these activities. And yet, somehow, even after those decisions, we've gone from having one Catholic Supreme Court justice in the 1980s to having five Catholic justices on the current Court.

What Gallagher is really worried about is that she will soon find herself in a world where her particular brand of close-mindedness is viewed by most as bigotry and people who believe what she believes won't be politically mainstream enough to be nominated and confirmed as judges. But that's a ridiculous thing to whine about because it pre-supposes that you've already utterly lost the public opinion battle. And if you believe something that the vast majority of people don't believe, you don't have a right to have everyone else agree with you. If you're right, try to convince people that you're right and stop whining about how you will be marginalized in the future when everyone disagrees with you. That's just pathetic.

[FarLeftRage]

1. Like I fucking care about her narrow minded views

It's assholes like her that give Catholicism a bad name... I just wish that she and ilk would join tne fundies they so like to imitate... :grr:

[babylonsister]

2. You don't have to care, but these 'assholes' will use every weapon

in their arsenal to obstruct anyone nominated by this admin. Just be prepared, because you know it's going to happen.

[FarLeftRage]

3. I know they'll use all means necessary to retain their power...

What I am saying is, that I hope they do find themsleves further isolated from power...