Doug Kmiec on a Court Packed with Catholics (Wall Street Journal)

If Judge Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed by the United States Senate, she will be the 6th Catholic among the 9 United States Supreme Court justices. Doug Kmiec, my constitutional law professor in the area of the Bill of Rights at Pepperdine University, discusses what this will mean in a recent interview with Suzanne Sataline of the Wall Street Journal .  Kmiec is a former White House adviser under both President Reagan and the first President Bush and a devout Roman Catholic.   Michael Peabody, Editor RLTV

EXCERPT:

Hi Professor Kmeic. So what will be the impact of having Catholics comprise two-thirds of the justices on the Supreme Court?

The Catholic understanding is that the nature of the office has to be respected and the judicial office . . . should not be a policy making position and the church does not assume it is . . . . It would be an entirely improper criticism for any churchman to make of Judge Sotomayor that she needs to rule in a way that is dictated by the faith. She is to follow the law as it is given to her and that is the oath she takes.

…

In what sorts of cases can we see those beliefs in action?

[Kmiec said he’s read about 50 or 100 of her rulings, perhaps a quarter of her authored opinions.] She does seem to be particularly sensitive to freedom of religion issues. She protected inmates in prison, for instance, who asked to have their faith traditions accommodated.

Read the full article at http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/05/27/doug-kmiec-on-a-court-packed-with-catholics/

Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor’s rulings on religious issues

University of Toledo law professor Howard M. Friedman has compiled a list of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s rulings on religion clause issues at his blog, Religion Clause.   Sotomayor has served on the Second Circuit since 1998. She served as a federal district court judge in the Southern District of New York from 1992 to 1998.

Friedman lists a couple of Second Circuit decisions involving religion where Sotomayor joined the panel majority, but his list of Sotomayor’s Southern District decisions is most helpful:

• Mehdi v. United States Postal Service, 988 F. Supp. 721 (1997) [LEXIS link] (rejecting claim by Muslim plaintiffs that post offices must include crescent and star along with Christmas and Hanukkah decorations);
• Moore v. Kennedy, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11474 (1996) (prisoner free exercise);
• Miller v. New York State Department of Labor, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11067 (1996) (employment discrimination);
• Utkor v. McElroy, 930 F. Supp. 881 (1996) [LEXIS link] (immigration asylum);
• DiNapoli v. DiNapoli, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13778 (1995) (accusations against sibling, member of religious order, growing out of estate administration).
• Rodriguez v. Coughlin, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5832 (1994) and Campos v. Coughlin, 854 F. Supp. 194 (1994) [LEXIS link] (preliminary injunction allowing Santeria prisoners to wear religious beads).
• Flamer v. City of White Plains, 841 F. Supp. 1365 (1993) [LEXIS link] (enjoining city from preventing rabbi’s placing of menorah in city park during Hanukkah).

Read the full article at http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2009/05/sotomayor-is-high-court-pick-here-are.html