here & there:

The de-protestantization of the Supreme Court?

posted by Sam Han

In light of the recent news that Justice Stevens will be retiring, the New York Times Week in Review notes that he is the sole Protestant on the Supreme Court. The article briefly addresses how religion is no longer considered to be a major factor in the selection of Supreme Court Justices, which may reflect the fact that religious affiliation is no longer a source from which Americans formulate ideas about identity and diversity:

“The practical reality of life in America is that religion plays much less of a role in everyday life than it did 50 or 100 years ago,” said Geoffrey R. Stone, a law professor at the University of Chicago. Adding a Protestant to the court, he said, would not bring an important element to its discussions.“These days,” said Lee Epstein, a law professor at Northwestern and an authority on the court, “we’ve moved to other sources of diversity,” including race, gender and ethnicity.

Read the full article here.

Tags: , , ,

Printer-Friendly Version


One Response to “The de-protestantization of the Supreme Court?”

  1. avatar John D. Boy says:

    Martin Marty weighs in on this question:

    In any case, pity the President who thinks he or she can assure representation of Protestantism simply by appointing a member of a Protestant church. Many Protestant churches are culturally so settled in that they wouldn’t know what or how to protest. Many other Protestant people are so unsettled that they will lobby for their faction. Can the one who makes an appointment satisfy the people called Protestant? Most are, top to bottom, at odds with each other. From a satellite distance, they come in three large tribes: “Mainstream” or “mainline,” “Evangelical,” and “African-American.” Most citizens in any of these three groups will neither say “Hurrah for our side!” nor feel represented by any representative of the other two.

    More here.

Leave a Reply

Please note: All comments will be approved by an administrator before they appear on this page.