Never let it be said the right-wing has a stranglehold on conspiracy theories.
The New York Times’ chief Washington correspondent, Carl Hulse, sincerely believes a shadowy “cabal” of Roman Catholic operatives has been working quietly to stack the Supreme Court with anti-abortion activists. His colleague, columnist Maureen Dowd, also believes a sort of Catholic “deep state” has infiltrated the court.
Dowd interviewed Hulse earlier this month to help promote his new book, Confirmation Bias: Inside Washington’s War Over the Supreme Court. During their conversation, Dowd questioned the author about the supposedly troubling trend of devout Catholics gaining greater influence on the court.
“Reading your book,” the New York Times columnist said, “I began worrying about the Catholic deep state, all kicked off by the death of [Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia] while at the ranch of … ‘a well-heeled Catholic outdoorsman.’”
“Prominent Catholic Don McGahn of Georgetown and Notre Dame, who teed off [Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh], who went to Georgetown Prep. Now, six of the nine justices are Catholic,” Dowd continued, adding in reference to herself and Hulse, “You’re Catholic. I’m Catholic.”
“Is this a Dan Brown novel that ends in the Vatican?” she said to laughs.
Hulse responded on a more serious note, “It’s just a fact, hard to explain. I honestly think that anti-abortion ideology is part of this, but there is a serious Catholic sort of mafia, which is probably not another term I should be using, that is driving this.”
“And I think you’re going to continue to see that,” he concluded. “Conservative Catholics are having a big role on the Supreme Court right now.”
That is not all. Last month, during a separate interview in Manhattan, Dowd asked Hulse the exact same question about the influence of devout Catholics on the Supreme Court.
“There is a Catholic cabal,” the New York Times’ chief Washington correspondent said at the time.
He continued, listing by name Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, whose respective groups work to promote conservative judges. Both Severino and Leo are Catholics.
“There is a serious Catholic influence here and it is something to watch on the court,” said Hulse. “And it totally plays into the abortion rights fight. They come at it from a totally different angle.”
He added, “There is, like, a real Catholic underground that is influencing this probably in an outsized way.”
I am not sure which is more repulsive: The conspiracy mongering or the suggestion that devout Roman Catholics cannot be trusted to adjudicate fairly on abortion-related cases because they “come at it from a totally different angle.” Also, let’s pause for a moment to appreciate the awesome weirdness of Hulse tracking the religious affiliations of conservatives who come near the Supreme Court. It is almost as unsettling as the New York Times’ 2015 “Jew tracker.”
Lastly, for fun, take any of the above quotes and swap out the word “Catholic” and replace it with the word “Jew” (there are, after all, three Jewish justices on the court). Then read it back to yourself and reflect for a moment on how it sounds. It is exactly what it sounds like.
Hulse and Dowd, of course, will feel no shame or criticism for scaremongering at the expense of Catholics. Sadly, they are not alone in promoting this sort of nonsense, and there is safety in numbers. In fact, their intolerance is shared by even top Senate Democrats, many of whom have attempted to impose religious litmus tests on Catholic judicial nominees.
(h/t Heather Champion)
