Orin Kerr analyzes the circumstances in terms of the political division between conservative and liberal Justices, though I think that’s largely coincidental—even among the Jewish Justices, who were mostly chosen as liberals who happened to be Jews, rather than as Jews who happened to be liberals. (You remember your logic, right?—because Jews tend to be liberal does not mean that liberals tend to be Jews.)
Roman Catholics tend to be either conservative, or liberal—and fairly passionate about whichever it is they happen to be. So the Romans could have landed on the other side of the court, though Kerr’s point is well taken that GOP Presidents might have wanted to appoint people who harbored some discomfort with Roe v. Wade. But as I understand it, not al of the legal qualms about Roe v. Wade have to do with being anti-abortion per se.
I honestly think that the more significant fact is that both of those religious traditions—Judaism and Roman Catholicism—have an affinity for scholarship: the practitioners bring up their young to have a scholarly bent, and the institutions attract people who like to learn complicated subjects and absorb endless numbers of facts.
They are certainly both old faiths—one of ’em older, of course, than the other (the parent faith). And because Catholics don’t believe in sola scriptura, there is a lot of material to be absorbed simply in the learning of the religious tenets. As opposed to the Protestant (and a person like me, who comes from a more evangelical mindset and reads too much Bible, too little of everthing else), the devoted Catholic is likely to be a bit of a Poindexter.
There are Protestant nerds, of course. And Buddhist ones (hi, Charlie!), Islamic ones, Hindu ones, and scads of atheist ones. We just happened to run out of ’em for a time. It’ll pass.
UPDATE: More fascinating stuff on religion traditions in SCOTUS at Volokh Conspiracy—including an intriguing thought about why Catholics might be better picks than Protestants, politically.
Via Insty.
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My take? Both Jewish and Catholic spiritual cultures are based on not only a Book of Law, but on many centuries’ worth of commentary on, and interpretation of, said law (i.e., the Talmud, the Magisterium). These cultures create people who are ideally suited for legal work.