Will We Get a Protestant to Replace Justice Stevens?

Some Supreme Court watchers are noticing that should Justice John Paul Stevens retire there will no longer be any Protestants on the high court:

With U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens talking openly about retirement, attention has focused on the "who" — as in who is on President Obama's short list of potential nominees. But almost nobody has noticed that when Justice Stevens retires, it is entirely possible that there will be no Protestant justices on the court for the first time ever.

Let's face it: This is a radioactive subject. As Jeff Shesol, author of the critically acclaimed new book Supreme Power, puts it, "religion is the third rail of Supreme Court politics. It's not something that's talked about in polite company." And although Shesol notes that privately a lot of people remark about the surprising fact that there are so many Catholics on the Supreme Court, this is not a subject that people openly discuss.

In fact, six of the nine justices on the current court are Roman Catholic. That's half of the 12 Catholics who have ever served on the court. Only seven Jews have ever served, and two of them are there now. Depending on the Stevens replacement, there may be no Protestants left on the court at all in a majority Protestant nation where, for decades and generations, all of the justices were Protestant.

I personally am opposed to any type of preconditions on Supreme Court nominations. However, having said that, I can play that game as well as any Democrat. After all, if a liberal retires the Dems will demand another liberal. If a woman retires the left prefers another woman, though they haven't always gotten their way. If a moderate retires the replacement must be moderate (which really means liberal most of the time). There are all kinds of preconditions the left attaches to Supreme Court nominations.

That is, until a conservative retires. At that point we'll be told that there will be no political litmus test and they can nominate anyone they choose, who of course will be a liberal should it happen while Obama is still in office.

So, based upon how the left chooses to act, I say should Stevens retire I demand his replacement be a Protestant - preferably Southern Baptist so Nancy Pelosi's head will explode.