DOESN'T ROBERT BYRD'S POCKET CONSTITUTION PROHIBIT THIS?

Court Could Tip to Catholic Majority (Alan Cooperman, Washington Post, 11/07/05)

If Samuel A. Alito Jr. is confirmed to the Supreme Court, a majority of its nine justices for the first time will be Roman Catholics -- a fact that, depending on whom you ask, marks the acceptance of a once-persecuted minority, reflects the importance of conservative Catholics to the Republican Party or means practically nothing.

Four Catholics currently serve on the court: Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and the new chief justice, John G. Roberts Jr. From the moment that President Bush announced Alito's nomination, there has been an undercurrent of debate about the prospect of a five-member Catholic majority.

After Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said that women, Latinos and people of "other religions, not to mention nonbelievers" would be underrepresented on the court, William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, quickly fired back.

"Smeal didn't whine when Jewish nominee Stephen Breyer was slated to join Jewish Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. No, it's only when we have too many practicing Catholics that people like her complain," he said.

The problem with the Democrats is that Bush Derangement Syndrome has made them so nuts that the fever swamps start looking reasonable. A party that seriously compares Republicans to Nazis is in no position to disavow pro-choice lunatics who insinuate that the Pope is just one Supreme Court justice away from ruling the nation.