SCOTUS: How Many Is Too Many?

Pat Buchanan recently opined the near-certain confirmation of Elena Kagan on the Supreme Court will bring Jewish jurists on the court to three.  This 33% representation far outweighs the overall Jewish demographic of about 2% of the general population.

Pat Laments:

Buchanan was responding to a Washington Post story about black leaders expressing disappointment over solicitor general Elena Kagan’s record at Harvard Law, where the faculty members she hired were mostly white.

“But while leaders in the black community may be upset, the folks who look more like the real targets of liberal bias are white Protestants and Catholics, who still constitute well over half of the U.S. population,” he wrote. “Not in living memory has a Democratic president nominated an Irish, Italian or Polish Catholic, though these ethnic communities once gave the party its greatest victories in the cities and states of the North.”

What Pat fails to mention is that there are already six Catholic justices on the court.

Now, if you are one of the few deluded remnants of pipe-dream America who believe we are a Representative Democracy, then sure 2% of the population does not merit 33% of influence on arguably the most important institution in these United States.

Blacks make up 13% of the population and have one representative on the court. Of course, by any stretch of the imagination Clarence Thomas represents black America about as closely as Angelina Jolie represents ugly, but, hey, we’re not talking politics here, we’re talking Demographics. And anyway, Blacks expect to be discriminated against. It’s part of American tradition like Mom, Apple Pie and Baseball.

Asians comprise about 4 1/2% of the population. They get nothing. Except a straight A grade point average.

About 15% of the population is Hispanic of one flavor or another. It’s hard to tell. Because as the CIA Fact Book says –

note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean persons of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin including those of Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican Republic, Spanish, and Central or South American origin living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group (white, black, Asian, etc.); about 15.1% of the total US population is Hispanic.

But, still they got Sonia Sotomayer of Puerto Rican descent to swell the ethnic pride.

Other ethnic groups represented are indigenous Americans – slightly less than 1% and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders about 2 tenths of 1%.

So no surprise there. Though, the new math of Jewish representation should allow American Indians and Eskimos 1.5 justices on the Supreme Court. But then, of course, there are only nine Supreme Court justices and you can’t please everybody.

Now Jews are not listed as an ethnic group by the CIA but as a religion. Which is weird because the overwhelming number of Jews I know are Atheists who believe in their ethnic tradition. But, golly, the CIA has screwed up before and we just have to grin and bear it.

So, according to the CIA, the religious Demographic of the USA is:

Protestant 51.3%,

Roman Catholic 23.9%,

Mormon 1.7%,

other Christian 1.6%,

Jewish 1.7%,

Buddhist 0.7%,

Muslim 0.6%,

other or unspecified 2.5%,

unaffiliated 12.1%,

none 4%

Now when you look at the numbers a few things stick out:

Protestants, the overwhelming majority of the religious by a 2 to 1 ratio, get squat. Now, Pat Buchanan is a Catholic, hence his hysterical concern that 66% representation on the court for 24% of the population is not nearly enough and the Jew, Kagan, is taking up another Catholic slot.

Now, while it is undoubtedly true Jews control the world or least Hollywood, Mainstream Media and Wall Street, if it were really true then Jews would have a majority on the court, in spite of their puny demographic because everyone knows the Jews allowed the pagan Romans to kill Jesus and with six Catholics on the court they could turn at anytime and send the Jews to the camps. We all know The Church in Rome turned a blind eye to the Holocaust during WWII. And while back in the 60s Americans were frightened the first Catholic president JFK was a secret agent for the Pope who instead turned out to be the Playboy of the Western World, it is obvious the Conservative Catholic, Chief Justice Roberts, is made of sterner stuff.

Indeed, the Catholic Church is one of the more heinous institutions of Western Civilization: Think religious Dogma and the Inquisition if you don’t slurp up the dogma like a Belushi speed-ball. Jews may think they walk on water, but Catholics think Mary was knocked up by God and after three days the murdered Jesus, wounds and all, resurrected, broke bread with his heart-broken disciples and then ascended to heaven where he still lives today, waiting to come back at some soon but unknowable time to wreak havoc on all the sinners, myself prominently included in that group. Okay, Protestants believe the same thing, but the reason there are protestants is because Luther wanted to reform the corruption of the Church and the Church, obviously, like today’s politicians, just can’t say no to Power.

Now, while I believe in God as much as the next guy, religion, any and all religion, is absolutely nuts. Sorry. There is no difference between religion and superstition in my book. God doesn’t need a middleman.  And, quite frankly, the Great War being fought in the world now is a religious Holy War as much as anything and the quickest road to peace would appear to be the abolition of religion.

So, Catholics, who have ¼ of the population own 2/3rds  of the seats on the Supreme Court bench. Methinks Mr. Buchanan doth protest too much.

Based upon the demographics shouldn’t Atheists have a seat or two? The crazy Mormons should have one. Not to mention, “other.”

So, over representation in a quasi representational society is relative. Sure the Jews have more influence than they deserve by the numbers. But so do the Catholics.

And where are the Tea Party Protestants in all this? Stop whispering about Elena’s rumored delight in the scissors position and start clamoring for a Baptist or Lutheran or Presbyterian or Anglican or Episcopalian or Seventh Day Adventist or Amish or Methodist or Mennonite or Quaker or Congregational or Pentecostal or “Other.”

Oh. Hmm. Maybe that’s it right there. Maybe after all the Protestants splinter into their little groups the numbers don’t warrant a seat on the Supreme Court. Why can’t the Protestants all just get along and form a union or something so they can get some influence in this country?

The Jews have Orthodox, Reform and Conservative and probably “other” too, but they know how to form a more perfect union to exponentiate and hyperventilate their influence beyond their meager number. Of course when you control the social narrative and everyone owes you money, it makes it a lot easier – but that’s another story.

So, when we are talking about undo influence, sure there some real reasons for some demographics to bitch and moan.

But Catholics aren’t one of them.