My recent reading (and blogging) of Jan Crawford Greenburg's Supreme Conflict predictably led to me thumbing through Yalof's Pursuit of Justices. While doing so I came across a fascinating tidbit that says volumes about how the place of Roman Catholics has changed in US society over the last 50 years. In the fall of 1956 President Eisenhower was interested in filling "the Catholic seat" on the US Supreme Court, which had been vacant since the death of Frank Murphy in 1949. One of Eisenhower's criteria for considering potential justices was that he didn't want to name anyone to the Court who was over 62. As his aides scanned possible nominees they learned that there were only two Catholics in the entire federal judiciary who met that age criteria. 2! These days we've got 3 Catholics that young on the US Supreme Court alone. Clearly being a Catholic is no longer the barrier to advancement in politics and the law that it was (not all that long ago).
Posted by armand at February 25, 2007 01:48 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Law and the Courts | Religion