She's Catholic, Too, You Know

Sonia Sotomayor would be the sixth Catholic on the Supreme Court, but that’s getting relatively little attention because of a political double-standard, writes William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal. When Samuel Alito was the nominee du jour, Democrats worried that he’d be the fifth Catholic. But they’re not worried about Sotomayor because “when it comes to hot-button social issues … she doesn’t really believe what her church teaches.”

But Andrew Gelman of FiveThirtyEight.com thinks no one’s talking about it because it’s inane. Sure, the current court may be more Catholic than Notre Dame, but past courts have been overwhelmingly Protestant. Of the 109 justices so far, 89 have been Protestants. Besides, “it is impossible for any collection of 9 people to be truly diverse.” There’s an endless number of criteria—lawyer or non-lawyer, politicians or non-politicians, etc—that could divide justices. (More Sonia Sotomayor stories.)