Bernie Ward on Catholic Supreme Court nominees.

From Bernie’s Jan 10th Show (and Bernie is a Catholic)

…And I’m tired of Catholics getting appointed. I’m just so tired of Catholics, and I’m tired of the fact that nobody on that panel will ask them about the Catholicism. I would say to him “Judge Alito, What’s the churches position on Abortion? What the churches position on pro choice? Judge Alito, Do you believe in Heaven and Hell? Do you believe if you commit a motal sin, and you die with that on your soul, that you go to Hell? Judge Alito, Doesn’t that mean that you could never cast a vote that would uphold Abortion because you would be condemning yourself to Hell. You mean you want this job so badly that your willing to condemn yourself to damnation?

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And then there is the following:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Roman Catholics would be the majority on the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time if Samuel Alito is confirmed -- a historically remarkable prospect in a country where "papists" were once taught in state schools that their faith was a lie.

But so far the development has passed for little more than a curiosity, reflecting how politics trumps religion when it comes to appointments to America's highest court, experts say.

Alito and the Catholics already on the court -- John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- appear to share many conservative views held by evangelical Protestants, a group historically suspicious of Rome and its hierarchical church.

The prospect of a Catholic court majority "is a credit to the evolution of America," said Julie Fenster, co-author of "Parish Priest," a book recently published by William Morrow about the Catholic priest who founded the Knights of Columbus.

"I don't think Catholics here realise how much their antecedents had to take on the chin in terms of job discrimination, public jeering -- in some towns it was hard to walk down the street without being shouted at," she said.

"And in the (public) schools you had to accept that your children would be taught from textbooks that said Catholicism was wrong," Fenster said.

CONSTITUTION OR POPE?

Historically, many Americans questioned whether Roman Catholics could uphold the U.S. constitution, or whether they were obligated to follow the dictates of the Pope while in office. There has been only one Roman Catholic U.S. president, John F. Kennedy, elected in 1960.

But evangelical Protestants seem so far to be embracing Alito, unlike President George W. Bush's last court nominee, Harriet Miers.

"Look at how the evangelical right responded to one of its own when it came to Harriet Miers," said Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

Bush nominated Miers, a fellow conservative Christian, last year but she withdrew under fierce attack from conservatives who questioned her credentials and commitment to conservative ideology.

"It just shows you how it's mostly about ideology and not about religion," added Walker, whose Washington-based coalition of 14 Baptist bodies works for religious liberty causes.

"I think it's good that not a lot is being made of it. Generally religion is not a very good predictor of how one will decide cases," he added, noting that former justice William Brennan, also a Catholic, was a liberal.

Of the remaining justices, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Ginsburg are Jewish, David Souter is Episcopalian and John Paul Stevens is Protestant.

"During much of 20th Century there was a Catholic seat and a Jewish seat (on the court). Anything but one Catholic would have created a lot of consternation among Protestants and evangelicals," said Martin Flaherty, a Fordham Law School professor who once clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Byron White.

REPRESENT THE COUNTRY

Alito and the others appear to have far more things in common than differences, he said.

"On some level the court should be very roughly representative of the country. If you have not just a majority but (one) from a certain wing of a denomination you wonder if the court does represent the country," he added.

About one in four Americans say they are Roman Catholic, making the church by far the largest single U.S. denomination. There is no monolithic political philosophy marking the faith, despite the church's strong official opposition to abortion, a position widely shared by conservative evangelical Christians.

About 52 percent of Americans say they are Protestants, although mainline churches are losing members as the evangelical movement grows. Less than 2 percent of the U.S. population is Jewish.

One anomaly is that 20 percent of U.S. Catholics are Hispanic, yet none of the five who would be on the court is, noted Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Centre in Chicago.

Religion "has pretty much become passe" as an issue, he suggested, except to the degree that it becomes a hot potato in nearly every U.S. presidential campaign when candidates define their stand on abortion.

Opposition to Alito has come from groups worried that the court would eliminate the right to abortion. Legal Momentum, a woman's legal rights group, said it feared putting Alito on the court would be "adversarial to a woman's right to choose."

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