Feinstein: Supreme Court justice’s religion shouldn’t matter

Sen. Dianne Feinstein brushed aside any notion that Elena Kagan’s religion should play into the Supreme Court nomination process.

On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Feinstein was asked about a column last week in which Pat Buchanan lamented that “if Kagan is confirmed, Jews, who represent less than 2 percent of the
U.S. population, will have 33 percent of the Supreme Court seats.”

Religion of the nominee, Feinstein said, should not matter. “I really do not believe it makes that kind of a difference,” she said.

“Actually, if she is confirmed, three members will be of the Jewish faith and the remainder will be Catholic,” Feinstein said.

“Does that bother me? The answer is no. Each one of the Catholic
justices are very different in how they approach the law, and I don’t
believe it’s necessarily related to their religion. And I think they
are total people, the products of their learning, their backgrounds,
their experiences in life, and that’s the way it should be.”

Buchanan accused Democrats of being against diversity by not putting a Protestant on the court, “though Protestants remain half the nation and our founding faith.”

Kagan is nominated to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, a Protestant.

Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are Jewish. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Sam Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Sonia Sotomayor are all Catholic.