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Where Are the Catholics When You Need Them?

Debate continues among bloggers over whether five Supreme Court justices' Catholicism influenced their decision in the abortion case Gonzales. (See, e.g., here, here, here and here.) Now the MSM has entered the fray, with a piece yesterday in The Washington Post asking, Did Justices' Catholicism Play Part in Abortion Ruling?

But at the blog Crime & Federalism, Mike Cernovich asks, "What evidence is there that the jurisprudence of the five Catholics on the bench comports with Catholic doctrine?" Looking beyond this recent abortion ruling, Cernovich finds departures from Catholic doctrine. As an example, he cites Justice Thomas's perceived support of free markets over just wages. By contrast, the Catholic Church has long recognized a just-wage doctrine.

"Under the just-wage doctrine, employers should pay their employees not simply market wages, but just wages. Appeals to the free market, under the just-wage doctrine, is to pray before a false god. And arguing that 'just wages' is but a synonym for 'market wages' is sophistry."

Another example: Justice Scalia's support for the death penalty. The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty in nearly all cases.

"Which is why the recent discussion about Catholicism and the partial-birth abortion opinion are lame. If critics want to make the case that Catholic members of the Supreme Court are imposing their religion on us, they need to make a much stronger case."

In a subsequent post, Cernovich says that while no one has made this case, he does believe religion plays a role in their views. "I also think," he adds, "this point is banal."

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on May 1, 2007 at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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