When will America get its first atheist Supreme Court Justice?
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  When will America get its first atheist Supreme Court Justice?
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Author Topic: When will America get its first atheist Supreme Court Justice?  (Read 1596 times)
VBM
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« on: October 17, 2020, 04:41:48 PM »

Atheists, agnostics, and people who don’t identify with any religion make up 25% of the population, but have never received any representation on the Supreme Court. An atheist/agnostic Justice would actually have an advantage over a religious Justice because they wouldn’t have to worry about their religion conflicting with the law, so in a fair society, it would actually make sense for the judiciary to be disproportionately non-religious, and yet the opposite is currently true
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brucejoel99
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« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2020, 05:52:22 PM »

Not at all an answer to the question but I can just imagine how all of the Republicans who say ACB's religion shouldn't be an issue would explode if Biden nominated an atheist to the Court.
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VBM
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« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2020, 06:02:48 PM »

Not at all an answer to the question but I can just imagine how all of the Republicans who say ACB's religion shouldn't be an issue would explode if Biden nominated an atheist to the Court.
THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO PACK THE COURTS WITH SATAN LOVERS WHO WILL PRIORITIZE THE CONSTITUTION OVER THE BIBLE!!!!!!
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emailking
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« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2020, 06:21:01 PM »

In about 20 years.
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2020, 07:38:46 PM »

If Breyer chooses to retire under a second term Biden or Harris, he isn't going anywhere in the first term, but he will approach 90 in a second D term and the Senate lineup of Casey, Kaine, Baldwin and Stabenow secures the 278 blue wall
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VBM
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« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2020, 07:57:54 PM »

If Breyer chooses to retire under a second term Biden or Harris, he isn't going anywhere in the first term, but he will approach 90 in a second D term and the Senate lineup of Casey, Kaine, Baldwin and Stabenow secures the 278 blue wall
If this RBG fiasco hasn’t taught the Democrat Justices that they should just do what the Republican Justices do and retire when their party controls the presidency and/or Senate, then this will just be even more proof that old Democrats are incredibly out of touch
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Fuzzy Stands With His Friend, Chairman Sanchez
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« Reply #6 on: October 17, 2020, 10:04:38 PM »

We've probably already had one.

Just because one claims a religious preference doesn't mean they are Believers.
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Del Tachi
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« Reply #7 on: October 17, 2020, 10:36:27 PM »

If Breyer chooses to retire under a second term Biden or Harris, he isn't going anywhere in the first term, but he will approach 90 in a second D term and the Senate lineup of Casey, Kaine, Baldwin and Stabenow secures the 278 blue wall
If this RBG fiasco hasn’t taught the Democrat Justices that they should just do what the Republican Justices do and retire when their party controls the presidency and/or Senate, then this will just be even more proof that old Democrats are incredibly out of touch

This would require the liberal justices seeing themselves as part of some larger ideological project (like a left-wing version of the Federalist Society, which doesn't really exist.)  Conservative jurists understand their role as fundamentally political while liberals value more mushy-gushy, virtue-signaling cultural stuff.   

Case in point:  "Notorious RBG" was a notorious loser, who got that name for her fiery dissents.  The most enduring aspect of her legacy will be Halloween costumes, bobblehead dolls, coffee mugs, children's books and t-shirts.  She is lionized not because of the policy results her rulings acheived, but because of how her (imagined) character as a sassy yass kween Jewish grandma smacking down bigoted Evangelicals and conservative Catholics resonates with American liberals.
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« Reply #8 on: October 17, 2020, 10:55:27 PM »

Well gorsuch is almost a non believer or non religious and is on the court
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R.P. McM
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« Reply #9 on: October 17, 2020, 11:08:26 PM »

If Breyer chooses to retire under a second term Biden or Harris, he isn't going anywhere in the first term, but he will approach 90 in a second D term and the Senate lineup of Casey, Kaine, Baldwin and Stabenow secures the 278 blue wall
If this RBG fiasco hasn’t taught the Democrat Justices that they should just do what the Republican Justices do and retire when their party controls the presidency and/or Senate, then this will just be even more proof that old Democrats are incredibly out of touch

This would require the liberal justices seeing themselves as part of some larger ideological project (like a left-wing version of the Federalist Society, which doesn't really exist.)  Conservative jurists understand their role as fundamentally political while liberals value more mushy-gushy, virtue-signaling cultural stuff.   

Case in point:  "Notorious RBG" was a notorious loser, who got that name for her fiery dissents.  The most enduring aspect of her legacy will be Halloween costumes, bobblehead dolls, coffee mugs, children's books and t-shirts.  She is lionized not because of the policy results her rulings acheived, but because of how her (imagined) character as a sassy yass kween Jewish grandma smacking down bigoted Evangelicals and conservative Catholics resonates with American liberals.

I don't know about the "sassy Jewish grandma" part, but I'm struggling to disagree with anything else. Yeah, conservative judges are unable to separate their political preferences from their rulings, and RBG's legacy is ultimately one of dissent, hubris, and failure.
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MATTROSE94
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« Reply #10 on: October 17, 2020, 11:14:10 PM »

Well gorsuch is almost a non believer or non religious and is on the court
Neil Gorsuch is pretty secular and doesn’t really come across as that religious, though he was raised as both a Catholic and an Episcopalian.
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Santander
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« Reply #11 on: October 18, 2020, 01:05:47 AM »

Well gorsuch is almost a non believer or non religious and is on the court
Neil Gorsuch is pretty secular and doesn’t really come across as that religious, though he was raised as both a Catholic and an Episcopalian.
Episcopalian is just a nice way of saying you like to go to church for cultural reasons twice a year (perhaps three times if you attend a wedding or funeral), but you're basically irreligious.
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« Reply #12 on: October 18, 2020, 01:12:35 AM »

Well gorsuch is almost a non believer or non religious and is on the court

Gorsuch is Episcopalian and regularly attended St. John's Episcopal Church when he was a circuit court judge. It's likely part of why he's not as hostile to the LGBT community as other conservative justices are.

Well gorsuch is almost a non believer or non religious and is on the court
Neil Gorsuch is pretty secular and doesn’t really come across as that religious, though he was raised as both a Catholic and an Episcopalian.
Episcopalian is just a nice way of saying you like to go to church for cultural reasons twice a year (perhaps three times if you attend a wedding or funeral), but you're basically irreligious.

Except Gorsuch has a history of regularly attending church....

------

I personally would be very reluctant to confirm an open athiest to the Supreme Court, but there will probably be one within my lifetime.
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PSOL
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« Reply #13 on: October 18, 2020, 01:27:02 AM »

We will most likely at least get an openly irreligious SC justice when the Democratic Party, and it will be the Democratic Party, will no longer rely on a sizable religious voting bloc in the general election and the Democratic Party elites are no longer that religious.

At minimum, I’d say we are two, maybe three decades away from that moment.
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Chunk Yogurt for President!
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« Reply #14 on: October 18, 2020, 01:43:06 AM »

Even as someone whose religious views are much more conservative than the average American's, I wouldn't have any issue with nominating an atheist to the Supreme Court, which is why I've never understood why so many Americans are opposed to atheists in office.  Is it a generational thing?
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Former President tack50
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« Reply #15 on: October 18, 2020, 06:40:03 AM »

We've probably already had one.

Just because one claims a religious preference doesn't mean they are Believers.

I think the OP means someone who actively identifies as agnostic or atheist. There are probably tons of people who self-identify as Christian yet have not stepped inside a Church for religious services in months or years.
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Calthrina950
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« Reply #16 on: October 18, 2020, 09:18:55 AM »

We've probably already had one.

Just because one claims a religious preference doesn't mean they are Believers.

I think the OP means someone who actively identifies as agnostic or atheist. There are probably tons of people who self-identify as Christian yet have not stepped inside a Church for religious services in months or years.

I fall into this category. I consider myself to be religious-somewhat-but I haven't been inside a church in years, and I don't like church services and ceremonies in general. You would have to drag me by force to one these days.
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Santander
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« Reply #17 on: October 18, 2020, 05:26:32 PM »

Even as someone whose religious views are much more conservative than the average American's, I wouldn't have any issue with nominating an atheist to the Supreme Court, which is why I've never understood why so many Americans are opposed to atheists in office.  Is it a generational thing?

Many people perceive the atheist label as implying antipathy towards religion. Most people would rather identify as unaffiliated or irreligious.
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Indy Texas
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« Reply #18 on: October 18, 2020, 05:45:58 PM »

There are very few actual "THERE IS NO GOD" atheists in America. There's a large bloc of people who do not affiliate with a religion, either because they have a strong anti-system orientation or because they just don't think a lot about metaphysics and theology and don't really care all that much. Those people often acknowledge some vaguely present "higher power" that doesn't have any real impact on their lives or offer any kind of ethical/moral way of ordering things.

I think "uninterested Deist" would probably be a fair way to describe a lot of religiously unaffiliated Americans.
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GP270watch
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« Reply #19 on: October 18, 2020, 05:47:02 PM »

 Not soon enough sadly.
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Samof94
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« Reply #20 on: October 18, 2020, 05:57:28 PM »

Eventually. It’ll be sooner than Iran, where it is impossible.
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emailking
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« Reply #21 on: October 19, 2020, 12:33:11 AM »

There are very few actual "THERE IS NO GOD" atheists in America.

Are you saying there are atheists who believe in god, or that most of the nones are not atheists?
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Ferguson97
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« Reply #22 on: October 19, 2020, 01:00:14 AM »

There are very few actual "THERE IS NO GOD" atheists in America.

Are you saying there are atheists who believe in god, or that most of the nones are not atheists?

Pretty sure he means there are no atheists who are extremely vocal about being atheists. Most just don't talk about it.
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emailking
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« Reply #23 on: October 19, 2020, 02:52:22 AM »

Oh ok, that I agree with.
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emailking
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« Reply #24 on: October 19, 2020, 08:02:17 AM »

I took it to mean someone who is openly atheist and will use that word specifically if asked what they are, in which case I think 20 years.
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