Catholic Federal Judge Accused of Religious Bias

An attorney has filed a motion for recusal against a U.S. District Judge William Zloch because he’s…well…just too Catholic, according to Law.com.

In a 110-page motion for to have the judge removed from two cases, Florida attorney Loring Spolter cited three damning incidents by the judge which clearly make him unfit to sit on the bench. Zloch hired three law clerks from Ave Maria Law School, he gave a donation to the school as well, and he has attended the conventions of conservative organizations.

I hear Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has attended functions at Ave Maria so maybe he should be thrown off the court as well.

Now, attorneys from all over the country including those who came before the good judge representing strippers and abortion clinics have defended Zloch.

Zloch, who was appointed to the bench by President Reagan in 1985, earned his undergraduate and law degrees at Notre Dame University. (HA! That solves it right there. Notre Dame is hardly even Catholic anymore.)

Spolter plans to appeal if Zloch rules against him again. The weird thing is that the two cases Spolter is talking about have absolutely nothing to do with religion. One is against a bank and the other one is against Toys R Us. (I don’t know how to make the “R” go backwards on this keyboard.)

But Spolter alleges Zloch is biased against one of his clients because he believes women should not work after they have children. I’m not sure I get how the Catholic thing works into that considering I’m Catholic and I’m a stay at home Dad. Maybe I can sue someone?)

As evidence of Zloch’s bias, he points to Zloch requiring the plaintiff, a woman, to skip work to attend her depositions in person while exempting New York-based Toys “R” Us executives from attending a mediation session. Well that’s pretty ridiculous. Of course, if executives had to go to court everytime companies are sued they’d never get any work done.

Spolter said, “Having faculty with strong beliefs favoring one end of the political spectrum would not be troublesome in and of itself,” according to Spolter’s motion. “It does, however, become problematic when a judge rewards and endorses a law school — through monetary contributions and by aggressively hiring its graduates as law clerks — when the faculty is comprised solely of those advocating a certain limited range of political and religious beliefs.”

This is certainly laughable if not downright insane but it does show the contempt shown for religious people in certain circles. Now please also remember that many times when things are first brought up they seem crazy until a few years later when they’re brought up again and they seem a little less crazy. Hey, I laughed out loud the first time I ever heard of “Earth Day.”

But does it seem outside the realm of probability that some lawyer will ask for Catholic judges like Scalia, Thomas, Alito or Roberts to recuse themselves over an issue on something like abortion because of their deeply held religious beliefs? Or perhaps the Senate Judiciary Committee won’t confirm a judge because of their faith?