Pierce Butler was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Justice of the Supreme Court, 61 to 8, after sixteen days of hearings.
We discussed Justice Butler here:
Gee, it's almost like politics played a role in Supreme Court nominations back then. . .
Butler also dissented from Olmstead v. United States, which upheld Federal wiretapping.
His religion was noted in our earlier entry, but this does make for an interesting topic.
Prejudice against Catholicism was intense for much of American history, and indeed it remained so at least up until the post World War Two era. The Oval Office was effectively barred to Catholics for that reason, but interestingly the United States Supreme Court was not.
Just Roger B. Taney was the first Catholic appointed to the Supreme Court, with that appointment coming in 1836 via President Andrew Jackson's nomination. Taney would serve all the way until 1864, when he passed away in office. Taney is unfortunately remembered today for being the author of the Dred Scott decision, not a good way to be recalled, and he interestingly died during the Civil War. Somewhat ironically, the next Catholic justice, Edward Douglass White, served in the Confederate forces during the war. Since White's appointment, there's never been an occasion when there wasn't at least one Catholic on the bench.
Theoretically, there's been a total of fifteen Catholic justices, including the six currently serving on the bench. Having said that, Justice Sotomayor is not an observant Catholic. Justice Thomas is a Catholic "revert", having been an Episcopalian at the time of his appointment.
Catholicism is a large, but still a minority, religion in the United States. The impact of Catholic jurists has been noted, but not always very accurately. An interesting observation on this is that Catholics are heir to an intellectual tradition that suits legal inquiry. The same observation has been made about members of the Jewish religion, and there have been eight United States Supreme Court justices who have been Jewish over the years, a fairly substantial recognition in light of their minority status.
It's often noted that the Court today has a Catholic majority, which is true, but it's less of a majority than it might seem given Sotomayor's ambiguous status. Having said that, it'd be a bare majority even without Sotomayor. This hasn't always meant predictability, however, in spite of what critics like to assert, as Catholic justices have taken positions that are at least facially contrary to Catholicism, such as Justice Kennedy's decision in Obergefell, and certainly Sotomayor was in Dobbs.
Thirty-three Supreme Court justices have been Episcopalians, reflecting that Protestant denomination's massive standing in the United States up until the 1970s. Once the dominant Christian denomination, culturally, in North America, it's suffered a huge decline to which it's reacted by moving to the left on social issues, which has seemingly accelerated the decline. Eighteen have been Presbyterians, which likewise was a Protestant faith of wide influence for many years. Episcopalianism and Presbyterianism reflect the country's early settlement, with both being religions that hailed from Great Britain and which descend from the Church of England and the Church of Scotland respectively.
The Lutheran faith, which is widely represented in much of the United States, interestingly has contributed only two Supreme Court justices. The Baptist faith has contributed only one more than that, even though it is currently the largest Protestant denomination. Five justices have been Methodists, which make sense in that it descends also from the Church of England and once called itself the Episcopal Methodist Church.
Fifteen Justices have been non-denominational Christians whose religious affiliation is not really known, and who may have not all been dedicated in their faiths. The religious background of one Justice, James Wilson, has been debated, but it seems likely that he was a Christian of the same type that some of the founders were, who seemingly favored various Christian denominations without being clearly of any particular one.
Nine justices have been Unitarians, which is somewhat surprising.
Generally, the religious affiliation of Supreme Court justices has been nearly wholly uncontroversial, save for Catholics and Jews, both of whom continue to be subject to prejudices that date back to the country's founding and early colonial history. Prejudice against Jewish justices tends not to be openly spoken, but prejudice against Catholic justices is.
Aleksandras Stulginskis was elected President of Lithuania. He was already serving in the role. He'd serve in that role until 1926.
Stulginskis had started off with the intent of being ordained a Catholic Priest, but abandoned that pursuit in favor of agriculture. He retired from politics in 1927. In 1941, he and his wife were arrested by the Soviets, and he was held as a Soviet prisoner until 1956 when he was released following Stalin's death. He died in Kaunas in 1969 at age 84.
Aleen Cust became the first licensed female veterinary surgeon in the United Kingdom. She'd been in practice for twenty years at the time.
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