Monday, April 12, 2010
John Paul Stevens
The pending retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens means not only the loss of the U.S. Supreme Court’s oldest member, but also its only Protestant. This development has raised the question among legal observers whether President Barack Obama should nominate someone of the same denomination to succeed Stevens.
Of the remaining justices, six are Catholic (Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor) and two are Jewish (Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer).
If President Obama does not nominate a Protestant, it would mark the first time in American history that this denomination was not represented on the court.
Legal scholar Geoffrey Stone says the religious composition of the court has historically been 83% Protestant, 11% Catholic, and 6% Jewish. Today, Protestants make up 51% of the U.S. population, Catholics 24%, and Jews 2%.
Stone has pointed out that religion can play a role in court decisions, pointing to the 2007 ruling (Gonzales v. Carhart) that upheld the partial-birth abortion law. The majority opinion was crafted then by the court’s five Catholics and the minority opinion by its four non-Catholics.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
The Protestant Seat on the Supreme Court (by Geoffrey Stone, Huffington Post)
Stevens, the Only Protestant on the Supreme Court (by Adam Liptak, New York Times)
Catholics Gain a Super Majority on the Supreme Court (by David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
Our Faith-Based Justices (by Geoffrey Stone, Huffington Post)
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