October 2, 2006--First Sunday In October
Today is the First Monday in October, not the movie of that title but the day that the US Supreme Court begins its new term. Court watchers will be looking closely at the decisions that will be handed down during the first full term of the post-Sandra-Day-O’Connor court. The one that has the recently appointed Chief Justice JohnRoberts and Samuel Alito joining Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. Should be quite a show.
Arrayed before the court are cases that deal with racial quotas in schools, environmental conservation, and of course abortion rights--or, depending how the court decides, the lack thereof. (See NY Times article linked below on the court calendar.) All complicated and daunting issues. So what did the good justices do on the Sunday before the Monday when they will have to get back to work? They went to mass together—to a Red Mass presided over by the new Archbishop of Washington.
This is the first time in American History that a majority of the Supreme Court is Roman Catholic and so it was appropriate that they would pray together at the same church. All but Alito that is—he was otherwise occupied, perhaps in an undisclosed location. In the Age of Terror they may have a rule that says one justice stays home in case . . . . Just like when the president delivers the State of the Union when one cabinet member does not attend in case . . . .
And what was on the Archbishop’s mind? Since the services are no longer in Latin it was easy to come up with a transcript, actually to read about his sermon in another article in the Times, just to the right of the one on the quotas and abortion cases (also attached below).
On his mind was a call for a resurgence of faith in the shaping of public policy. He did not speak directly about abortion and such, but in a not-so-coded way he argued that religion cannot and should not be separated from the judgments we bring to bear on law or policy.
It is thus comforting to know that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was also in attendance. We know that from the photo the Times published that shows him joking around with Justice Thomas. Probably exchanging movie reviews.
I suppose they’ll all have to come back to church next Sunday, hopefully bringing Judge Alito with them, to hear the sermon about the separation of church and state.
Arrayed before the court are cases that deal with racial quotas in schools, environmental conservation, and of course abortion rights--or, depending how the court decides, the lack thereof. (See NY Times article linked below on the court calendar.) All complicated and daunting issues. So what did the good justices do on the Sunday before the Monday when they will have to get back to work? They went to mass together—to a Red Mass presided over by the new Archbishop of Washington.
This is the first time in American History that a majority of the Supreme Court is Roman Catholic and so it was appropriate that they would pray together at the same church. All but Alito that is—he was otherwise occupied, perhaps in an undisclosed location. In the Age of Terror they may have a rule that says one justice stays home in case . . . . Just like when the president delivers the State of the Union when one cabinet member does not attend in case . . . .
And what was on the Archbishop’s mind? Since the services are no longer in Latin it was easy to come up with a transcript, actually to read about his sermon in another article in the Times, just to the right of the one on the quotas and abortion cases (also attached below).
On his mind was a call for a resurgence of faith in the shaping of public policy. He did not speak directly about abortion and such, but in a not-so-coded way he argued that religion cannot and should not be separated from the judgments we bring to bear on law or policy.
It is thus comforting to know that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was also in attendance. We know that from the photo the Times published that shows him joking around with Justice Thomas. Probably exchanging movie reviews.
I suppose they’ll all have to come back to church next Sunday, hopefully bringing Judge Alito with them, to hear the sermon about the separation of church and state.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
9:51 AM
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