It seems a case of peculiarly unfortunate timing that after the Supreme Pontiff went one way in 1968 and the Supreme Court went completely the other way in 1973, the latter institution was gradually but effectively packed with devotees from the former. This has lead us, rather recently, to a situation in which the highest court in the land has been making rulings which seem to follow Humanæ Vitæ more closely than they do the line of cases starting with Griswold v. Connecticut.
In the following photo of the conservative voting bloc on SCOTUS, I have circled all of the non-Catholics in blue — pic.twitter.com/tvsmn59SXW
— Blue Ball Skeptics (@BlueBallSkeptic) July 1, 2014
As much as I’d like to believe it is just an unfortunate coincidence that the conservative anti-contraception wing of the Supreme Court is entirely Roman Catholic, you don’t have to be a hardcore skeptic to harbour grave doubts on that point. The predictive algorithm on reproductive rights has become all too simple:
Sorting heuristic for SCOTUS on reproductive choice for women: All the Roman Catholics will vote against it, except the one who is a woman.
— Blue Ball Skeptics (@BlueBallSkeptic) July 1, 2014
I’m not sure what the answer is to this ongoing problem. Obviously, the idea of an implicit religious test doesn’t sit too well with the “no religious test” clause, which happens to be one of my favorite bits of the entire Constitution. Nevertheless, I do find it disturbing that the only branch of Christianity which historically has been at least somewhat comfortable with allowing women some semblance of reproductive self-determination is completely unrepresented in the institution that historically holds the most sway on such issues here in the U.S.
To quote Jeffrey Rosen, “[I]t’s a fascinating truth that we’ve allowed religion to drop out of consideration on the Supreme Court, and right now, we have a Supreme Court that religiously at least, by no means looks like America.” I have to wonder whether we can really call this particular demographic skewness a form of progress.
Your thoughts?
