Letter to the editor: Protestantism on Court has become endangered species

By: Letter to editor | Opelika Auburn News
Published: August 10, 2009

Protestantism on Court has become endangered species
In our nation where approximately 55 percent of the general population expresses the Protestant faith, it seems that three presidents, (Obama, Bush and Clinton) have ignored the demographic features of Protestantism for nominees on the Supreme Court.

Since religious test for public office is prohibited in the Constitution, voters in the privacy of the voting booths have used it against the Mormon religion of Gov. Mitt Romney during his Republican presidential candidacy.

Republicans and Democrats also use the abortion issue as a religious test embattling presidential nominees for the high court. Religion matters in America, and it is exercised freely with some restraints in politics.

While Judge Sonia Sotomayor brings diversity of gender and ethnicity, her religious faith seals a Catholic bloc of six jurists equaling 67 percent (25 percent of the population), with two Jewish jurists representing 22 percent (1.7 percent of the population), and the lone, aged Protestant of 11 percent in the history of the Court.

Associate Justices Antonio Scalia and Clarence Thomas have been very vocal as critics of the existing Establishment Clause precedent. Judge Sotomayor was not quizzed about it during the Senate hearings, because senators spent more time questioning her off the bench statements on race and gun control.

Her opinions on church-state matters are vague and contradictory. Therefore, a Catholic bloc means a reversal of Establishment Clause, and challengers to the executive branch expenditures on faith-base initiatives can be easily ruled by 6-3 favor for the White House.

Protestantism on the Court is an endangered species that will be felt for many years to come.

The decline of Protestantism can trace its fall to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both of Baptist persuasions, who chose no jurists with Southern Baptist Convention roots, the largest Protestant denomination in the nation.

Isaiah J. Ashe
Huntsville