Supreme Court Nominee Miers

[Sanford Levinson]

 Earl writes:

By the way, don't I seem to remember something about a Jewish seat?

I think the "Jewish seat," which certainly existed (though,
interestingly, no one, I believe, argued that Ginsburg and Breyer were
appointed to fill such a seat), was based more on identity politics (as
is true of the "Italian seat" now occupied by Scalia or the "female seat
pioneered by O'Connor) than a belief that Brandeis et al. would bring a
"Jewish perspective" to the Court, etc.  (Did Reagan believe that
O'Connor would bring a "female perspective"?  Did she in fact do this?)
Perhaps the assumption was that Jews were liberals, as has been true of
the Jews appointed to the Court, but I still think it had more to do
with identity politics than an otherwise inexplicable desire by
Protestant or Catholic presidents to place people with "Jewish values"
on the Court.  With Meirs, the rationale seems far less identity
politics than putting someone with a presumed set of values, derived
from and explained by (and presumably solidified by) her religious
identity.  I assume, incidentally, that those Protestants who were
reassured by Roberts' strong Catholic identity were quite certain that
his Catholicism was quite different from that of Anthony Kennedy or,
even more to the point, William J. Brennan.  

It's also the case, for what it is worth, that none of the "Jewish
Justices" has been notably observant.  I believe it is fair to say that
all would be more easily classified as "secular Jews" than as
significantly observant ones.  And, of course, even if one is more
observant than, say, Frankfurter, (e.g., keeping some of the dietary
restrictions and attending High Holiday services, as I do), that's still
not evidence for the proposition that one is a "believing Jew" in the
sense of ascribing to any set of theological postulates (I would
certainly describe myself as "secular" in this regard).  I assume that
the term "secular Protestant" or "secular Catholic" simply doesn't have
the same purchase in our society as that of "secular Jew."  It only
underscores that for many (including many Jews), the category "Jew" is
more an ethic one, like Scalia's Italianness, than a "religious" one in
any very deep sense.

sandy