I just became aware of something very interesting. As I am sure you all know, Justice Stevens of the Supreme Court has been making some noise recently about retiring sometime soon. If he were to do that during the Obama administration, he would be giving President Obama a second opportunity to put a liberal judge on the bench.
But that's not what is interesting! The interesting thing is that Stevens happens to be the only Protestant currently on the bench. The court, it turns out, is overwhelmingly Catholic, and disproportionately Jewish. Since the court was founded by Hammurabi (or someone like that) in 1492 (give or take) , there have been a total of 12 Catholic supremes - 6 of them are currently serving on the court. There have been 7 total Jews, two of whom are currently on the bench. If Steven's replacement is not a Protestant, the court could be entirely without a Protestant for the first time since the Spanish Inquisition (or thereabouts.)
I did some quick wikipedia research and found that 51% of the country is Protestant, 23% Catholic and 1.7% Jewish. I also happen to know that nearly all of our Presidents have been Protestant, the single exception being President Kennedy. So why so few Protestants?
I don't point this out as a problem. The Supreme Court has no obligation to maintain any sort of representative sample of the American religious landscape. I point it out simply because it is a remarkable statistical anomaly.
I have a few possible explanations, but I am interested to hear yours. Anyone got a theory that might explain this?
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Maybe because Catholics, by virtue of simple familiarity and complete subjugation to all things Mass-like, are the only ones that can deal with the massive pomp and ceremony attendant to the job?
ReplyDelete...spoken like a true Protestant, I suppose. Anyway, I'm kidding -- I'll think on it more. Interesting line of thought.
You might be onto something there. Everyone knows Catholics look good in robes.
ReplyDeleteParticularly Roman Catholics. TOGA PARTY~
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ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting point, and is quite often the precursor for a more controversial debate about ideology and judicial interpretation.
ReplyDeleteMore than a few people have argued that the recent skew towards Catholics is due to the growing importance of abortion views in the confirmation process. You could argue that Justices separate their ideology and the law, but if I was a Pro-Life advocate, I'd feel much better about my chances if the people deciding my case personally believe that abortion is murder.
Small sample size.
ReplyDeleteThat's what she said.
ReplyDeleteYou gave percentages for the general population. I wonder what the demographics are of lawyers - more specifically, judges.
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