If Elena Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court this summer, she will replace its last remaining Protestant justice, John Paul Stevens. The Court would be composed of six Catholics and three Jews, even though half the country is Protestant, and only a quarter Catholic and a mere 2 percent Jewish. For some people, this is cause for celebration look at how far we’ve come from the days where the court was basically all Protestant except the for single seats “reserved” for a Catholic and a Jew! Look how far we’ve come from the days when Catholics and Jews were seen as a dirty foreign scourge destroying our pristine WASP-y America. For others, like Pat Buchanan, it’s a reason to grimace and complain.
If Kagan is confirmed, Jews, who represent less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, will have 33 percent of the Supreme Court seats.
Is this the Democrats’ idea of diversity? ….
But while leaders in the black community may be upset, the folks who look more like the real targets of liberal bias are white Protestants and Catholics, who still constitute well over half of the U.S. population.
Not in living memory has a Democratic president nominated an Irish, Italian or Polish Catholic, though these ethnic communities once gave the party its greatest victories in the cities and states of the North.
What happened to the party of the Daleys, Rizzos and Rostenkowskis?
This all boils down to: Why are the Democrats choosing so many Jews and non-white Catholics? Look, we don’t know exactly why Democratic presidents keep nominating Jews and Sonia Sotomayor, but it’s not because of some kind of anti–white-non-Jew bias. Here’s one theory though: Orrin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy says that, with regards to the Jews, they’re already overrepresented in law, and they lean liberal, so there are plenty for Democratic presidents to choose from.
Whatever the reason, it’s a good thing that religion is no longer a barrier to the Supreme Court, and we’re sure the oppressed Protestant majority will make its way onto the bench again in the future. Maybe someday even a Muslim will get on there, at which point Pat Buchanan will ritualistically light himself on fire.
Are liberals anti-WASP? [WND]
