The Change In The Supreme Court: A Majority “Minority” Court

How times have changed!   Who could have imagined that the Supreme Court of the United States would reach the stage 220 years into its history to be made up of a majority that are "minority", at least if religion is considered along with gender and race.

When Sonia Sotomayor joins the Court this fall, there will then be SIX Catholics on the Court  (Sotomayer, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Roberts, Alito), the most ever, and in history only eleven in total have served.  There will also be two Jewish justices  (Ginsberg, Breyer), and only one WASP (John Paul Stevens), even though they are still the majority of Americans, albeit in smaller numbers than ever before.

Additionally, there will be two women (Ginsberg, Sotomayor), one Hispanic (Sotomayor), two Italian Americans (Scalia, Alito), and one African American (Thomas).  This will mean that the Court is more representative of the nation than it has ever been, with the likelihood of future appointments further reflecting the diversity of America,  and even leaving the possibility that when Stevens finally leaves the Court, he might not be replaced by another WASP!

This series of developments in recent years demonstrates how the country is being more and more democratized and made open to equal opportunity, with of course the election of Barack Obama a shining example of this trend.  We are not going to allow the conservative Republicans and conservative groups in general to set us backward to the "old boy" system.  That is part of the prejudiced, limited past, and the time for that is over!  The country is changing for the better, and not too soon!

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