Recuse Me!

Last week we made note of the fact that Los Angeles Archdiocese Cardinal Roger Mahoney has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to keep files relating to the Roman Catholic dioceses’ sexual abuse scandal out of the hands of the L.A. district attorney.

The move was the latest legal maneuver by Mahoney, who has argued that being forced to turn over the documents — which are believed to detail how the church shuffled abusing priests from parish to parish — would violate the First Amendment and the Church’s constitutional right to freedom of religion.

Yet we at Holier Than Thou are prompted to point out that the Supreme Court has several Catholic members sitting on its bench, and wonder if those same members will recuse themselves from deciding this case on the grounds that they — as Catholics — have an inherent conflict of interest.

So, just for the record, how many current members of the U.S. Supreme Court are Roman Catholic?

A) Two
B) Three
C) Four
D) Five
E) Six


ANSWER:
D) Five — or enough to form a majority. Justices John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Are the chickens guarding the hen house, or will these brave souls do the right thing and recuse themselves from deciding this case?

We’ll keep you posted…