...it's that they are Republican partisan jerks.
Talk Left has a post up announcing today's decision by the Supreme Court overturning the penalty in three Texas murder cases.
http://www.talkleft.com/...
The votes to toss out the death penalty in these three cases were Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer, Stevens and the Catholic Kennedy.
Notice how the other Catholic justices: Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia voted to keep the death penalty. How Catholic is that?
Not very.
The Roman Catholic church does not support the Death Penalty. Pope John Paul II, when issuing the Evangelium Vitae in 1995, condemned abortion, euthanasia and THE DEATH PENALTY, among other things.
So, the only justice within the last few weeks to have voted consistently with the Catholic church would be Justice Kennedy. As much as we might want to (and ought to) criticize Justice Kennedy for his recent vote, recall that Roe v. Wade would have been overturned in 1992 in the Casey v. Planned Parenthood case, had Justice Kennedy voted the way the Pope would have wanted him to.
Given the recent vote on abortion, it is a fair question to ask if the faith of the justices in the majority influenced the vote. (http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/04/does-it-matter-that-5-supreme-court.html) However, given the votes of Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia on the death penalty in opposition to the teachings of the Roman Catholic church, I think the conclusion to be drawn is that Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia are Republicans first and foremost. So, basically, my opinion is that the Catholicism of these four justices is irrelevant to the fact that they were chosen for their promise to further the political goals of the Presidents that chose them.
As an aside, one of the most liberal voices in the history of the Court was a Catholic: Justice William Brennan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
As another aside, I cannot monitor the comments after this posting because I am going to watch the Nuggets pound the San Antonio Spurs.