It’s a striking development given that the high court, for most of its history, was almost entirely populated by white male Protestants.

The other three -- Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan -- have been Jewish. Updated 1:32 pm EDT, Monday, September 28, 2020 Majority opinion. container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-6', Mourners pay respects as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose under the Portico at the top of the front steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, in Washington.

Sotomayor is the only Democratic nominee in that period who is Catholic. John Gehring, Catholic program director at the Washington-based clergy network Faith in Public Life, said Catholics are major players in the conservative legal movement who invest in law schools and in well-funded networks that often serve as pipelines to high-profile judicial appointments. target_type: 'mix' Biden also has a history of saying things he regrets when losing his cool, though.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., departs the chamber after speaking about the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Sept. 21, 2020. “They see an opportunity to overturn the Affordable Care Act on their way out the door.”. “The Catholic intellectual tradition has produced giants of liberal thought as well, but in recent decades the right has done a better job building institutions that nurture pathways to power,” Gehring said via email.

_taboola.push({ “I don’t think there’s any scheme or plot to bring Catholics to the Supreme Court,” he said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pays her respects to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she lies in state in the U.S. Capitol on Friday, Sept. 25, 2020. Still, the court is expected to be the dominant topic in the debate, with other top issues being seen along the same ideological spectrum.

He recalled advising Clinton to "not get into the debate because it just drags it down.”.

container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-15', mode: 'thumbnails-c', Catholic academics and political analysts offer several explanations for the turnaround – related to Catholics’ educational traditions, their interest in the law, and – in the case of Catholic conservatives – an outlook that has appealed to recent Republican presidents filling judicial vacancies. Flowers and light candies outside the Supreme Court Friday, Sept. 18, 2020, in Washington, after the Supreme Court announced that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died of metastatic pancreatic cancer. Barrett, a favorite of conservative activists for her views on abortion and other issues, will likely be an ideological opposite of liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Jewish justice whose recent death created the vacancy. placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 12', Here's a look at the confirmation process and what we know and don't know about what's to come. The former vice president is also bracing for attacks from the 74-year-old president, including that he is too old at 77 to handle the rigors of the White House. He's instead using the vacancy to focus on how the court fight could threaten the Obama administration's signature health care law amid a pandemic — a case he'll make again during the debate. Will Weissert and Jessica Gresko, Associated Press. placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 6',

“No one should worry that Catholics on the Supreme Court will all agree with each other about matters of legal interpretation.”. Trump's taxes will also likely be a focus after The New York Times reported that he paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for office and paid no income taxes at all in many other years. O’Donnell said he’d expect there would be discussion of Democrats’ argument that Republicans are hypocritical for pushing to confirm a justice with Election Day just weeks away, despite their refusal four years ago to confirm President Barack Obama’s nominee in an election year when voting was still months off. target_type: 'mix' });

_taboola.push({ Rocha said Biden will likely use the Supreme Court vacancy and other issues to try to rattle Trump and get him to blurt out ill-advised remarks. target_type: 'mix' Milford Central School, case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on June 11, 2001, ruled (6–3) that, under the First Amendment ’s freedom of speech clause, a religious group in New York state could not be denied the use of a local public school’s facilities after school hours, since the facilities were available to other groups promoting similar issues (in this case, the moral and character development of children). FILE - In this June 2019 file photo the empty courtroom is seen at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington as the justices prepare final decisions of the high court's term. Trump's Democratic rival, Joe Biden, would be the second if he wins. Roman Catholics account for a bit more than 20% of the U.S. population, yet they are on track to hold six of the Supreme Court’s nine seats now that President Donald Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill its vacancy.

window._taboola = window._taboola || []; Seven of the eight Republican appointees since 1986 have been Catholic or, like Neil Gorsuch, were raised Catholic. David Crary, Ap National Writer. container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-9',

The following month he received a one-year prison sentence, suspended after serving four months. “The problem is not how many justices are Catholic,” he added. “They were appointed because they were conservative, not because they were Catholic,” said McGuinness. mode: 'thumbnails-c', Mourners pay respects as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose under the Portico at the top of the front steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, in Washington. Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Gary Fields contributed to this report. AP Explains: What's next for Trump's Supreme Court pick?

“That’s because those who made those remarks paid a heavy price for doing so,” he wrote on his group’s website. container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-12', mode: 'thumbnails-c', “If you watch his debate performances, much of what happens in the debates gets tested out in his town halls,” he said. This image provided by Rachel Malehorn shows Judge Amy Coney...Photo-20018875.209787 -, FILE - In this June 15, 2020, file photo the columns of the...Photo-20020974.209787 -. Both candidates are likely to repeat their talking points about the Supreme Court.