A Catholic Majority on the Supreme Court

David Bernstein that a Catholic majority on the Supreme Court is near reality:

There will be, if Alito is confirmed. This is an extraordinary development. It was, let’s recall, only forty-five years ago that JFK’s Catholicism was a major issue in a presidential campaign. […] We can rejoice that Catholics are now such an accepted part of the American scene that it will hardly raise any eyebrows that a fifth Catholic has been nominated to the Supreme Court (joining, of course, two Jews).

Extraordinary, indeed. Moreso since it had not previously occured to me that there are four Catholic Justices on the Court now.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Maria says:

    I wonder why people keep puting Jews along with the Catholics. What`s so weird about it? Why do they have to compare apples with oranges all the time? Jewish-is nationality, and Catholic-is religeon. Now here is the question. Why people are so illiterate still about it? What`s so hard to understand about it? Why is it such a big deal to have two Jews in the Supreme Court and to have four Catholics? Nationality verses Religion. How long are the people gonna blame everything on Jews and Catholics?

  2. James Joyner says:

    Bernstein, whom I would hazard a guess is Jewish, is clearly not blaming anything on either group–merely noting that something that not so long ago would have been hugely controversial, isn’t. And “Jewish” is not a nationality, although perhaps Zionism is.

  3. DL says:

    Does Kennedy count in that catagory?
    Does he vote like a Catholic?
    What then, does it matter?
    Putting a fine label on a cheap suit doesn’t make it a fine suit!