Churches weigh in on court nomination

[Algorem]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/01/14/churches_weigh_in_on_court_nomination/

By Rich Barlow | January 14, 2006

In the hubbub over Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s confirmation hearings for the US Supreme Court, the high court's justices weren't the only interested parties wearing robes. Some clergy members and religious groups took stands on whether Alito should be confirmed, including unprecedented activism by the Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Association.

Before this week's hearings opened, the UUA urged the Senate to reject Alito, the first time it has stated an opinion about a nominee for the Court. (The church had opposed some recent candidates for lower federal courts.) The UUA followed up by submitting, in conjunction with other religious groups, a list of questions on religious liberty for the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider in grilling Alito, says Rob Keithan, director of the UUA's Washington advocacy office.

The liberal-leaning UUA's membership is tiny. But Keithan notes that the Union for Reformed Judaism -- the largest Jewish group in North America, with more than 900 member congregations -- also came out against the nomination. Other clergy groups, including Alito's own Catholic Church, reiterated their principles for judges while declining to weigh in on the nomination.

At a time when churches' pronouncements on politics and politicians have caused consternation from some quarters, Keithan says his denomination's stand is partly in reaction to conservative churches advocating for judges who oppose abortion and gay marriage. ''The fundamentalist religious right had made court-stacking a priority," he says...

[FloridaPat]

1. So the only people that like Alito are the radical right wing religious

nuts and *. And this doesn't raise a red flag with the Democrats?

[Poppyseedman]

2. I wonder if this violates

501{c}{3} of the IRS code.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1828.pdf