US Supreme Court in 2023

[Ernie]

Why do you think there are seven Catholic judges on the Supreme Court (six conservatives), one Jew, and one mainline Protestant. The Catholic dominance has been in effect since the 1990's. Why no Evangelicals?

[HondurasKeiser]

Why do you think there are seven Catholic judges on the Supreme Court (six conservatives), one Jew, and one mainline Protestant. The Catholic dominance has been in effect since the 1990's. Why no Evangelicals?

"The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind"

[Josh]

Why do you think there are seven Catholic judges on the Supreme Court (six conservatives), one Jew, and one mainline Protestant. The Catholic dominance has been in effect since the 1990's. Why no Evangelicals?

The groups listed are more likely to go to law school and to run in elite circles where they will clerk for an elite judge, etc

[temporal1]

Why do you think there are seven Catholic judges on the Supreme Court (six conservatives), one Jew, and one mainline Protestant. The Catholic dominance has been in effect since the 1990's. Why no Evangelicals?

The groups listed are more likely to go to law school and to run in elite circles where they will clerk for an elite judge, etc

This seems reasonable.
Is there one place where merit counts? Shhh.

[Josh]

Why do you think there are seven Catholic judges on the Supreme Court (six conservatives), one Jew, and one mainline Protestant. The Catholic dominance has been in effect since the 1990's. Why no Evangelicals?

The groups listed are more likely to go to law school and to run in elite circles where they will clerk for an elite judge, etc

This seems reasonable.
Is there one place where merit counts? Shhh.

Depends on who’s doing the nominating. Sotamayor does not seem particularly qualified and frankly after listening to her at oral argument, I don’t see how she could be a magistrate hearing traffic tickets.

[Ken]

Why do you think there are seven Catholic judges on the Supreme Court (six conservatives), one Jew, and one mainline Protestant. The Catholic dominance has been in effect since the 1990's. Why no Evangelicals?

The evangelical world doesn't have a lot of legal excellence. The law schools at Liberty University, Baylor University, Regent University, Pepperdine University, etc. are all second rate.

Outside of the Ivy Leagues, there are top tier Catholic law schools like Notre Dame and Georgetown. And the Ivy Leagues themselves have large numbers of Catholic, Jewish, and mainline Christian students. And all of them came out of mainline Christian denominations n even if they long ago lost their religious affiliations. Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth were founded by Congregationalists. Princeton by Presbyterians, Brown by Baptists, and Columbia by Episcopals. But all of them were essentially WASP so mainline protestant.

Since the top Federal courts largely draw from the Ivies and a few other places like Notre Dame, that is who they are drawing from.

[temporal1]

The groups listed are more likely to go to law school and to run in elite circles where they will clerk for an elite judge, etc

This seems reasonable.
Is there one place where merit counts? Shhh.

Depends on who’s doing the nominating. Sotamayor does not seem particularly qualified and frankly after listening to her at oral argument, I don’t see how she could be a magistrate hearing traffic tickets.

Nothing is 100%

[RZehr]

What is WASP?

[Ken]

What is WASP?

White Anglo Saxon Protestant.

I.e. the American ruling class from colonial days up until the middle 20th century at least. The subpopulation from which leaders including Supreme Court justices were drawn. Kennedy was the first non-WASP president in 1960 and even that was controversial at the time.

[HondurasKeiser]

What is WASP?

White Anglo Saxon Protestant.

I.e. the American ruling class from colonial days up until the middle 20th century at least. The subpopulation from which leaders including Supreme Court justices were drawn. Kennedy was the first non-WASP president in 1960 and even that was controversial at the time.

Many WASP families can trace their roots back to the Mayflower or soon thereafter and many leaders/politicians today have Pilgrim/Puritan roots.