JUDGES AND COMMUNION

Ramesh refines his position. Money quote:

Most of my commentary in this matter has concerned judges who hold views about judging that constrain their discretion. If the judge practices a Dworkinian ‘moral reading’ of the Constitution, then he is, whether or not he admits it, playing a legislative role. A Catholic Dworkinian who reads a right to abortion into the Constitution would have sinned in the same way as (and perhaps in more ways than) a legislator who votes for abortion.

So a Catholic Justice who believes in the right to privacy as a moral as well as a constitutional matter could be denied communion, if such a right were construed to include the right to abort an unborn child. Or am I missing something? That strikes me as a big deal. And the bishops’ threat to withhold communion not just from elected officials but “public” ones seems to me to include judges. The upshot of Benedict’s church will be indeed to dictate to Catholic public officials, including judges, what they can and cannot do and still be allowed to receive communion. Under those circumstances, a judge’s religion would indeed be fair game for Senate hearings, it seems to me. Sad to say.