I like to think I'm politically savvy but I learned something new today that shocked even me. It turns out that there are five Catholic Supreme Court Justices. I would have never guessed that. Even more intriguing is the prospect of moving that number up one with the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor who is a Catholic.
Judge Sotomayor would replace Justice David H. Souter who is an Episcopalian. While Catholicism is the single biggest denomination in the United States Catholics only make up about 25% of the population. However if Sotomayor's appointment is approved Catholics will make up over two thirds of the Supreme Court.
If Sotomayor is appointed I will be interested to see how her political, gender, racial, and religious issues play out in the Supreme Court. She has already proven that she considers her external influences to carry some weight in her judicial judgments.
Judge Sotomayor would be the only moderate/liberal catholic on the high court. I will be terribly intrigued about how all of her external influences weigh in her decision making. Here background will lead to conflict on some highly debated issues that will come up for the Supreme Court.
How will her religious and ethnic backgrounds relate to her political and gender views? There are two major issues that I can see coming in front of the Supreme Court in just a few years that will dramatically shape America. One is the civil rights of same gendered people. The other is the issue of banning the death penalty. This is not to mention the issue of abortion which continues to deeply divide Americans.
One has to wonder as a Catholic, how someone like Judge Sotomayor will balance her faith with being an objective judge. One could also ask, should she balance her faith with being an objective judge? Should they be the same? As Catholics we are widely taught that the Catholic way is the objective way.
For better or for worse it will certainly be interesting to see what happens with Judge Sotomayor and the rest of the Supreme Court Justices. As a Catholic I will be highly interested to see how the Catholic Justices will react to the new constitutional issues of the day. Especially the issues on same sex civil rights. For Catholic Americans it is one of the most interesting and telling times in history for the way the faith is moving.
Tags: Catholic Court Constitution
