When Sonia Sotomayor was nominated for the Supreme Court, and there was some discussion of having 6 Roman Catholics on the court at the same time, I posted the following historical graph:
It’s time for an update:
It’s still gonna take awhile for the Catholics to catch up. . . .
And this one might be relevant too:
It looks as if Jews and men have been overrepresented, also Episcopalians (which, as I noted earlier, are not necessarily considered Protestant in terms of religious doctrine but which I counted as such for the ethnic categorization). Religion is an interesting political variable because it’s nominally about religious belief but typically seems to be more about ethnicity.
I like "Total number of justice of each denomination" in the Sex figure there. Some people are religiously attached to their gender.
These questions about representation of various groups on the Supreme Court (which isn't intended to be a representative body) remind me of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Hruska
Senator Roman "Hruska is best remembered in American political history for a 1970 speech he made to the Senate urging them to confirm the nomination of G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court. Responding to criticism that Carswell had been a mediocre judge, Hruska claimed that:
"Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos." "
Kieran: I guess you can tell that I just copied the code from the top graphs to make the third one, and I forgot to change that part of the label!
No deists at all?
Other proof-reading note: "deMomination." Or perhaps you ran these on Sunday.
So what if it will be "awhile for the Catholics to catch up"? By that logic, why not put in 8 Muslim justices, since we've never had any of those.
Shouldn't we have a court that is representative of the populace at large, rather than one that is trying to "catch up" from past transgressions?
Gabe: I'm not making any recommendations, I'm just giving you the statistics.
I guess "demomination" is a typo for denomination. I was hoping it was a clever way of combining religious affliation with gender.
I suppose I just misunderstood what you meant then. Fair enough, I apologize.
Wouldn't it be more interesting to break down the specific church affiliations. The question I would pose is whether too many people have loyalty to a particular organization, not whether they come from the same social group.
The Catholic Church is a single hierarchical organization. Some of the other Christian denominations are too. Congregationalists aren't. Episcopalians… sort of are, sort of aren't, what can I say!
Anyway, about that David Davis! Lincoln is apparently the only President brave enough to put a non-churchgoer on the Supreme Court. And WOW was that man ahead of his time. Ex Parte Milligan is no longer good law, but it damn well should be.
I'd proudly vote for him today!