Religion and the Supremes

The Supreme Court will be changing again. To no one's surprise, 89-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens has announced he will be retiring this summer.

This puts the ball in President Obama's court. Obama, like all presidents, will proclaim that his only object in nominating a new justice is to find the most qualified person for the job. But various ascribed and achieved personal characteristics of candidates will inevitably come into play. There are many population segments that could, and perhaps will, claim that they need more representation on the court: Asians, women, blacks, gay and lesbians, and so forth. How Obama balances all of this in his decision-making will be fascinating to watch.

At the moment, it will be noted, there is one black on the Supreme Court, no Asians, just two women, one Hispanic, and no one who is openly gay or lesbian. Obama's last appointment was female and of Hispanic background.

Now, an additional consideration has cropped up as part of the discussion. Religion.

Some observers have taken note of the fact that, with Stevens' retirement, there will be no Protestants or other non-Catholic Christians on the Supreme Court. Six of the remaining eight justices are Catholic. Two are Jewish. At the moment, that means that 67% of the U.S. Supreme Court is Catholic and 22% is Jewish.

This proportionality is, of course, widely different from the religious composition of the overall U.S. population. My latest calculation from over 350,000 Gallup Daily tracking interviews conducted in 2009 is that 24.3% of American adults identify their religion as Catholic and that 1.8% identify as Jewish. By far the largest group of Americans, religiously speaking, are Protestant/non-Catholic Christians -- 54% of all adult Americans in our 2009 data. After Stevens steps down, this group will have no representation on the court.

Also. Beyond Protestant/non-Catholic Christians and Catholics, the next most prevalent group in America is the 15.3% who say they have no religious identity, or who don't otherwise give a response to our religion question. I don't know how many potential nominees will openly say they have no religious identity. But presumably, some observers may argue that this group of atheist/non-believers also deserves their place on the court.