Catholic Law?

New York, N. Y.—Last summer, about two dozen law school professors from nominally Catholic colleges and universities protested the then-pending nomination of U. S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, a Catholic convert, but they did not do so from a Catholic perspective.

“Judge Roberts’ record on reproductive rights is also of great concern,” read the letter that the professors signed onto. “In a brief and on public television, he argued, as principal deputy Solicitor General, that a civil rights law did not protect women from harassment by violent anti-abortion demonstrators at abortion clinics.”

“He also wrote in a government brief that Roe v. Wade ‘was wrongly decided and should be overruled.’” On the letter, Boston College is easily the most represented Catholic institution of higher learning, with half a dozen professors who signed hailing from BC law. The others included:

• Loyola (5 signers)

• Georgetown (3)

• St. Johns (2)

• The University of San Francisco (2)

• Santa Clara (2)

• Notre Dame (1)

• Seton Hall (1)

• St. Mary’s (1)

The letter was released in September by the Alliance for Justice. Among the groups in the Alliance political coalition: the Center for Reproductive Rights, the National Abortion Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood.

“The September 1 letter is not the only example of Catholic law school professors cooperating with the pro-abortion Alliance for Justice,” according to the Cardinal Newman Society. “On July 14, another 19 professors at 12 Catholic law schools—only two were also signers to the September 1 letter—joined in a letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to grill Roberts about whether he recognizes ‘a constitutionally protected right to privacy and, if so, under what circumstances does it apply.’”

“In October 2003, 39 professors at 15 Catholic law schools signed an Alliance for Justice letter opposing the nomination of Judge Janice Roberts Brown to the D. C. Circuit [Court],” the Newman Society reports. “The signers complained that Brown, a former justice on the California Supreme Court, voted to uphold a law requiring parental consent or judicial bypass before a minor could have an abortion.”

The Newman Society, founded by Fordham University graduate Patrick J. Reilly, is based in Manasas, Virginia.

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.