One problem with religion at present is that it is very, very, very unclear whether religion is doing any work at all. Consider the obvious. The five most religious Catholics on the court were appointed by conservative Republican presidents. The three Jews and the least religious Catholic on the court were appointed by more liberal Democratic presidents. To evaluate the role of religion, you really would want a Jewish justice appointed by a Republican and/or a religious Catholic appointed by a Democrat. And better yet, we might either the Jewish justice appointed by a Republican to toe the conservative line on matters that seem not to involve religion (state sovereign immunity?) but diverge on religious issues. Same for the religious Catholic appointed by the Democrat. But right now, what we largely have is five justices appointed by Republicans who consistently vote more conservatively than the four justices appointed by Democrats. That the five conservatives may al! so be religious Catholics as of now, may have no more bearing on their rulings than that they all are right-handed (I'm making this up).
_______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.