Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Current Religious Make-up of the Supreme Court

Hypothetically speaking, if Judge Sonia Sotomayor were to get nominated to the Supreme Court, there would be six Catholics on the bench, relative to 24% of the overall population. Historically, however, there has been a lack of Catholic representation on the bench, 11 total nominated of which 5 are currently sitting. Needless to say, in recent decades, nominations to the Supreme Court have skewed Catholic.

Of the three other Justices, 2 are Jews, and the remaining, Protestant (Stevens).

(h/t Josh Marshall)

2 comments:

Roland the HTG said...

Perhaps even more interesting: Sotomayor would add to the Catholic total, and yet make the bench more pro-choice.

Anonymous said...

Interestingly, whether one agrees or not, having yet another papist on the court pales in comparison to the hype over having (apparently "needing") a Hispanic on the Supreme Court.