In the Wall Street Journal, William McGurn wonders why Samuel Alito’s Catholicism was so much more discussed than Sonia Sotomayor’s:
It’s possible, of course, that Democrats and their allies in the media and activist community no longer regard Catholics with the suspicion they did back when President George W. Bush’s nominees were up for consideration. More likely, the relatively soft reaction to Ms. Sotomayor’s Catholicism is because of a calculation that when it comes to hot-button issues such as abortion or gay marriage, she doesn’t really believe what her church teaches.
Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, says the Sotomayor hearings highlight a glaring double standard about how the Catholicism of judicial nominees is treated — and the great irony this treatment exposes.
“According to one theory of jurisprudence,” says Mr. George, “the judge may not bring his own moral beliefs or personal feelings to bear on his rulings on what the law is. This is the view held by people like Scalia and Alito and Roberts.”
This means that a judge who is personally pro-life can uphold a pro-choice law — and a judge who is personally pro-choice can uphold a pro-life law. What matters is the law, not the personal feelings. When judges follow this path, they take some of the heat out of culture wars. That’s because those who want to change the law — pro-life or pro-choice — have to do it the way our Founders intended: through their elected representatives.
July 14th, 2009 | 4:12 pm
Dear Joe,
When Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed, I believe the number of Catholics on the Supreme Court will total six.
July 14th, 2009 | 8:54 pm
Joe! I think that the only “ONE” who can correct all of our problems is Jesus and that will be when He again comes to judge the living and the dead.
I hear ya! Some will still say, Christ, why don’t you mind your own business!
Peace
July 17th, 2009 | 10:38 am
>>When Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed, I believe the number of Catholics on the Supreme Court will total six.>>
Like many Democrats who call themselves Catholic and still support abortion, I think the Church would be wise to begin to excommunicate politicians who claim to be one thing while clearly supporting things that are anti-Catholic. Bishops should make it clear that you cannot publically stand against the church and still claim to be a member of the church in good standing.
What a person holds in private conscience is between them and God, but what a person proclaims as part of their public persona can give great scandal – and the church has an obligation to stand against them. The bishops have been remiss in not doing so.
Sotomayor has shown a willingness to misrepresent her beliefs. She may claim to be a Catholic, but imo, she is not. She’s a hypocrite. The Church is nothing more than part of her “latina” cultural background.
And the Dems know it. She’s part of the destroy by infiltration movement. So they overlook her “Catholicism” – they know it’s just part of her “cover”.
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