Michael,
Isn't it possible that the justices will simply advance what they believe the law to say? It sounds like you are suggesting that they all lack the integrity to rule justly based on existing law, regardless of whether or not their faith teaches that the law is right. I know that, as an evangelical Protestant, I don't want people on the court saying "What does evangelical Protestantism teach?" and ruling accordingly. I want them to rule based on what the law says, whether it lines up with evangelical Protestant thought or not. It then falls to people like me to elect representatives who will pass laws that I believe are right. It's not generally the Court's job to make that assessment, though.
Brad
Michael wrote:
It is indeed probable that we will have five right-wing Roman Catholics on the Court, an astounding event. One way to think about this is to ask whether they represent “normative” American Catholic social, legal, and political thought. If they do then one might conclude that they will advance the interests of the Church at least as much as the interests of the Protestant Empire. If they do not represent “normative” American Catholic social, legal, and political thought, then one might reasonably conclude that they were selected by evangelical Protestants to do the work of the Protestant Empire, work which may not necessarily advance the interests of the Church. . . .Again, it is the nature or the parameters of the interest-convergence that is all-important in assessing this remarkable turn of events: five Roman Catholics doing the work of the Protestant Empire (whether or not they are also doing the work of the Church which in and of itself is an important question) and two Protestant/Protestant-heritage justices and two Jewish/Jewish-heritage justices seeking to keep the Protestant Empire in check.
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