Mier's religious views

[dpinello at jjay.cuny.edu]

Judges' religious affiliations are not neutral forces in judicial 
policymaking, and substantial empirical evidence supports this 
assertion.  For example, see Donald R. Songer and Susan J. 
Tabrizi, "The Religious Right in Court: The Decision Making of 
Christian Evangelicals in State Supreme Court," Journal of Politics 
61:507 (1999).

My own research (Gay Rights and American Law, Cambridge University 
Press, 2003) confirms the matter, finding religion to be a 
statistically significant attitudinal force.  In all federal and state 
court-of-last-resort decisions addressing lesbian-and-gay-rights 
claims in precedent-free environments between 1981 and 2000, 45.9 
percent of 109 votes by Roman Catholic judges favored those claims, 
while 49.0 percent of 243 Protestants judges' votes did.  In contrast, 
76.4 percent of 55 votes by Jewish jurists were supportive.  Such 
differences are not inconsequential or accidental.

Dan Pinello
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