Sotomayor would be court's 6th Catholic

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By Julia Duin

If confirmed for the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor would be the sixth Catholic to sit on a bench that, before the current crop of justices, had featured only six Catholics in its entire history.

Little is known of the nominee's religious life other than that she attended Cardinal Spellman High School, a Catholic parochial school in the Bronx, and Catholic scholars and jurists differ over how much their religion should influence their judicial decisions, even on such hot-button issues as abortion and gay marriage.

Justice Antonin Scalia told listeners at Villanova Law School in October 2007 that "there is no such thing as a 'Catholic judge,' " going on to give the "bottom line" that "just as there is no 'Catholic' way to cook a hamburger, I am hard-pressed to tell you of a single opinion of mine that would have come out differently if I were not Catholic."

But Robert Destro, professor at the Columbus School of Law and founder/co-director of Catholic University of America's Interdisciplinary Program in Law and Religion, said a person's religion "inevitably" makes a difference in how a judge rules.

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"It's not just a way of thinking; it's a set of assumptions and worldviews," he said.

Besides Justice Scalia, the Catholics now on the court are Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas. Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are Jewish, and Justice John Paul Stevens is Protestant.

Judge Sotomayor, who is divorced with no children, would replace David H. Souter, who is an Episcopalian.

At Tuesday's introduction ceremony, Judge Sotomayor did not mention her religion, and President Obama made only a glancing reference to her having attended Cardinal Spellman.

Most of the current Catholic justices fall to the court's conservative side, and Judge Sotomayor is not considered likely to reinforce their majority. Mr. Obama voted against the Alito and Roberts confirmations and said he would use different criteria in picking justices.