Current Justices of the Supreme Court: All Except Two Are Roman Catholics

Jamesjpn  January 11, 2021   

Six out of nine current Supreme Court Justices were nominated by Republican Presidents! And yet Roe vs. Wade has still not been overturned. And seven out of nine are Roman Catholics who are supposed to be against abortion!

John G. Roberts, Jr.

John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States,
President George W. Bush, Republican, nominated him as Chief Justice of the United States, and he took his seat on September 29, 2005. Roberts is a devout Catholic and is married to an ardent pro-life activist. In spite of the fact he was nominated by a Republican and is supposed to hold traditional Christian values, he ruled with other Supreme Court justices in July 2020 that Nevada can impose tighter restrictions on churches than casinos to enforce social distancing guidelines. Moreover, Roberts concurred with the liberals on the court to strike down a Louisiana anti-abortion law! Why doesn’t the Pope excommunicate the guy? Something sinister is afoot. Maybe the RCC’s stance against abortion is really phony after all.

Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice,
President George Herbert Walker Bush, Republican, nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and he took his seat on October 23, 1991. Thomas was raised Catholic and attended a Catholic seminary.

Stephen G. Breyer

Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice,
President Clinton, Democrat, nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on August 3, 1994. Breyer is Jewish.

Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice,
President George W. Bush, Republican, nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on January 31, 2006. Alito is a practicing Catholic.

Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice,
President Barack Obama, Democrat, nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26, 2009, and she assumed this role on August 8, 2009. Sotomayor is Catholic.

Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan, Associate Justice,
In 2009, President Obama, Democrat, nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 10, 2010. She took her seat on August 7, 2010. Kagan is Jewish.

Neil M. Gorsuch

Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice,
President Donald J. Trump, Republican, nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on April 10, 2017. Episcopalian, raised Roman Catholic

Brett M. Kavanaugh

Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice,
President Donald J. Trump, Republican, nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on October 6, 2018. Kavanaugh is a practicing Catholic.

Amy Coney Barrett

Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice,
President Donald J. Trump, Republican, nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her seat on October 27, 2020. Barrett is a practicing Catholic.

Current U.S. Supreme Court Justices as of October 2020

 

Source

The Court Case That Could Finally Take Down Antiquated Anti-Catholic Laws

The Atlantic. January 12, 2020 

Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear one of the most significant education cases in decades: Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. Centering around a modest tax-credit scholarship program in Montana, Espinoza could have major ramifications for educational-choice programs across America, which help nearly half a million students attend private schools.

In deciding Espinoza, the Court has the opportunity to do more than just settle the fate of one controversial tax credit; it could also junk Montana’s Blaine Amendment, finding it in violation of the Constitution’s religious-freedom and equal-protection clauses. In doing so, it would set a strong precedent against any law born of bigotry, even if other justifications seem neutral.

The Espinoza case dates back to 2015, when, shortly after state lawmakers enacted the tax-credit scholarship program, the Montana Department of Revenue devised a rule that banned families from using the scholarships to attend religious schools, which account for more than two-thirds of the state’s private schools. The case is brought by three Montana moms whose children are thriving at a private religious school; without the tax-credit scholarships, the families are struggling to pay tuition. (Litigating on behalf of the parents is the Institute for Justice, where I work, though I’m not directly involved with the lawsuit.)

In May 2017, a trial court ruled in their favor and struck down the Department of Revenue’s rule. But in December 2018, the Montana Supreme Court reversed the decision, citing what is commonly known as Montana’s Blaine Amendment. Enacted during a wave of anti-Catholic bigotry in 1889, the amendment bans “direct or indirect” public funding for any “sectarian purpose.” According to the majority opinion, the tax-credit scholarship program violates the Blaine Amendment, even though it’s funded entirely through voluntary, charitable, private donations incentivized by the state’s tax credit. This past summer, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, and it will be argued on January 22.

Today, 37 states have Blaine Amendments in their state constitution, though the precise wording varies. The amendments are named after Representative James G. Blaine of Maine, who in 1876 proposed a federal constitutional amendment that would have prohibited state funding for schools “under the control of any religious sect.” Blaine’s amendment passed the U.S. House of Representatives but fell just short of the supermajority it needed to pass the U.S. Senate.

Even though Blaine’s amendment was never enacted nationwide, Congress later required many potential states to adopt a version of the amendment in order to be admitted to the union. Starting with the Enabling Act of 1889, Congress granted statehood to Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington only after their state constitutions guaranteed that their public schools would be “free from sectarian control.” Senator Henry Blair of New Hampshire, who regularly reintroduced the Blaine Amendment in subsequent sessions, called this provision of the Enabling Act “the very essence” of his proposal, and praised Congress for setting a “great precedent.”

At first glance, Blaine Amendments may seem like a benign way to ensure the government’s neutrality toward religion. In the 1875 speech that inspired Representative Blaine, President Ulysses S. Grant called for a federal ban on government funding for “sectarian schools” in order to “keep the Church and state forever separate.” More recently, nine states with Blaine Amendments collectively filed an amicus brief in the Espinoza case, arguing that no-aid provisions like theirs and Montana’s merely “sought to solidify the Framers’ original design separating church and State.”

But Blaine Amendments weren’t truly devoted to the separation of Church and state. Instead, they were mainly focused on separating the Catholic Church and state. Although public schools are largely secular today, that wasn’t the case in the 19th century. Public or “common” schools typically instilled in their students a nondenominational form of Protestantism, requiring them to sing hymns, pray, and read from the King James Bible—in direct conflict with Catholic dogma.

Refusing to send their children to schools that clashed with their values, many Catholic families (often immigrants) created their own private, religiously affiliated school systems. In turn, those parochial schools quickly became a target for bigoted attacks, most infamously by the Know Nothing party, and later by the American Protective Association. The association was particularly powerful in Montana: At the APA’s peak, up to one-tenth of Montana residents were members. The fact that Blaine Amendments featured so prominently in the platforms of those groups clearly shows that prejudice was a motivating factor behind state Blaine Amendments.      More

Religious leaders to start pressure campaign around criminal justice reform

Politico   11/22/2018

Religious leaders buoyed by a successful alliance with the Trump administration are readying a pressure campaign with a new target: Senate conservatives who are blocking criminal justice reform.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, backed by Republicans with evangelical ties such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, is blocking a Trump-approved plan to revamp the criminal justice system, the latest priority of religious groups after they focused much of their earlier efforts on stocking the courts with conservative judges.

McConnell so far has resisted efforts to bring to the floor the bipartisan bill that would reduce maximum penalties for repeat offenders and give judges more discretion in handing down prison sentences, knowing it has already created deep divisions within the GOP caucus.

But religious leaders — who have the weight of President Donald Trump behind them — are preparing to pressure McConnell and other senators, such as Cruz and David Perdue (R-Ga.), to change their minds.

Starting next week, the Faith and Freedom Coalition will ask its 2 million members to flood Congress with letters and phone calls, said coalition Chairman Ralph Reed. Religious groups hope they can put enough pressure on Republicans with large evangelical constituencies to get a rare piece of major bipartisan legislation passed in a bitterly divided Congress.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s head was under a pillow when he was found dead at a Texas ranch

By Marisa Schultz February 15, 2016 | 1:38am

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s head was under a pillow when he was found dead at a Texas ranch, according to the ranch owner who found his body.

“We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bedclothes were unwrinkled,” Texas millionaire John Poindexter told the San Antonio Express-News Sunday, describing how he found the 79-year-old jurist in the “El Presidente” suite at Poindexter’s 30,000-acre luxury ranch on Saturday.

“It looked like he had not quite awakened from a nap,” Poindexter said.

He later told the New York Times, “His hands were sort of almost folded on top of the sheets. The sheets weren’t rumpled up at all.”

While some reports claimed Scalia’s death was caused by a heart attack, Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara said he died of “natural causes.”

Guevara told the Associated Press that Scalia’s personal physician, as well as sheriff’s investigators, said there were no signs of foul play.

There was no autopsy at the family’s request and his body was flown from El Paso to Washington, DC, late Sunday afternoon.

Scalia was described as “animated and engaged” during a dinner on Friday night.

“He was seated near me and I had a chance to observe him,” Poindexter said. “He was very entertaining. But about 9 p.m. he said, ‘It’s been a long day and a long week. I want to get some sleep.’ ”         NY Post