ViL: update

As an update to my previous post on the religious balance of the court.

On Alito's religion, Andrew Sullivan, a Catholic of Irish descent, comments:

"In Benedict's church, on critical Constitutional questions, we might face five recusals in abortion cases, which would make any ruling largely meaningless. This is the consequence of the Vatican's retreat from the Second Council's acceptance of religious freedom and conscience, and Benedict's deep qualms about a clear separation of church and state. The theocons want to reverse the Kennedy compromise. And in doing so, they may be forcing Catholics in public life to withdraw altogether or face the charge of a religious conflict of interest. In their zeal, the theocons are unwittingly breathing new life into anti-Catholic prejudice, and new force behind the exclusion of Catholics from public life in a pluralist democracy."

Vol-in-Law

The Vol Abroad updates on other types of balance:

I know other commenters will have pointed this out, but around half the population are women. And there are good numbers of qualified women jurists. Why not choose one of them?

And I'd also like to refer back to a previous post arguing for a different sort of balance.

Following the nomination of Roberts, Michael Deal wrote to editor at The Tennessean demanding:

Isn't there a Southern lawyer good enough for the Republican Party? Or maybe it's that Southern lawyers are just too good for the Yankee Republican Party.

If this country is to survive and prosper, both parties must get past this Ivy League incest and put real Americans back into high government office instead of Yankees and other foreigners.

Indeed. Poor old Harriet Miers met two of the three things I might like to see in a new Supreme Court Justice: qualified, Southern and female.