Associate justice, US Supreme Court
Samuel Alito, 72, is an American lawyer, devout Catholic and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George W Bush in 2005, and has served since 31 January, 2006. He is the 11th Roman Catholic and also, after Antonin Scalia, the second Italian-American justice to serve on the US Supreme Court. Alito wrote the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade and delivered a speech to the Religious Liberty Conference on 21 July saying that religious freedom was “under attack in many places because it is dangerous to those who want to hold complete power”.
Lawyer and former supreme knight of Columbus
Carl Anderson, 71, is a lawyer who, until 2021, served as the 13th supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus. He is a board member of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and has served as a member of the board of trustees of the Catholic University of America and the National Catholic Educational Association. Anderson is also vice president of the Washington session of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
Associate justice, US Supreme Court
Amy Coney Barrett, 50, is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She is the fifth woman to serve on the court after receiving the nomination from former president Donald Trump in 2020. Before and while serving on the federal bench, she has been a professor of law at Notre Dame Law School. In June 2022, Barrett voted to completely overturn Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey. In June 2021, Barrett joined a unanimous decision in Fulton v City of Philadelphia, ruling in favour of a Catholic social service agency denied funding from the City of Philadelphia because it does not adopt to same-sex couples.
Former US Solicitor General
Noel Francisco, 53, is a senior Jones Day lawyer in DC who served as 47th Solicitor General of the USA under Donald Trump from 2017-20. He is the first Asian-American to hold the position. His Philippine father immigrated to America to become a doctor in New York. He is married with two daughters, lives in Washington, and has served on the board of the Lumen Christi Institute.
President, Leahey & Johnson
Peter James Johnson Jr is president of Leahey & Johnson in New York, where he has earned a reputation for excellence as a trial lawyer, appellate lawyer and litigator. He has represented and championed the causes of families who lost loved ones in the police and fire services and has been an outspoken advocate for the victims of the September 11 attacks. He is an honorary deputy chief of the New York Fire Department and a former director and a past honoree of the Catholic Interracial Council.
Associate justice, US Supreme Court
Brett Kavanaugh, 57, is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by former president Donald Trump in 2018 and was confirmed on a closely contested vote in the US Senate. He was previously a US circuit judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He is of Irish Catholic descent on both sides of his family. He has helped serve meals to the homeless as part of church programmes and has tutored at the Washington Jesuit Academy, a Catholic private school in the District of Columbia.
Former commissioner, New York City Police
Raymond Kelly, 81, is a former New York police commissioner. He is the longest-serving commissioner in the history of the NYPD and the first man to hold the post for two non-consecutive tenures. Kelly had spent 45 years in the NYPD, serving in 25 different commands. He was a Marine Corps Reserve colonel, director of police under the United Nations Mission in Haiti, and an Interpol vice president. Kelly graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School in 1959 and also holds a JD from the St John’s University School of Law.
Lawyer
Charles LiMandri, 66, is an American lawyer based in California. He famously litigated against the American Civil Liberties Union in the defence of the Mount Soledad Cross in San Diego. The case lasted 25 years. In 2002, he founded the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF) to aid in paying for his pro bono work on behalf of religious freedom. In 2021 he successfully litigated against the State of California before the United States Supreme Court to force the governor to open the churches for 40 million people. In 2022 he merged the FCDF into the Thomas More Society, a national Catholic public interest law firm that promotes and protects traditional family and pro-life values and the religious freedom of Christians, through litigation and educational programmes.
Partner, Taft Law
George D Molinsky is a partner at Taft Law in Cincinnati, where he specialises in corporate law. He is recognised by Best Lawyers in America for his work in corporate law and has been named lawyer of the year multiple times for his practice. Molinsky is a board member for Ruah Woods, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, The Brandery and the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee. He attended the University of Notre Dame where he received his BA and his JD.
Senior partner, Kramer, Dillof, Livingston & Moore
Thomas Moore is a senior partner at the New York law firm Kramer, Dillof, Livingston & Moore. He is recognised as one of the best trial lawyers in the US and is known for winning nine out of ten cases. Moore has been named lawyer of the year multiple times by Super Lawyers magazine. In addition, he is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, an elite group of the top 100 trial attorneys in the country. Moore attended the Catholic University of America and Fordham Law School. He has funded scholarships for Fordham and endowed a chair in trial advocacy.
17th chief justice, US Supreme Court
John Roberts, 67, has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States Supreme Court since his appointment by President George W Bush in 2005. Roberts one of 15 Catholic judges in the Supreme Court’s history and one of six Catholic justices on the current Supreme Court. Yet despite his Catholic faith and image as a conservative justice, Roberts has often compromised with the court’s liberals on social issues. He has voted in favour of certain restrictions to abortion, but he was not in favour of overtturning Roe v Wade.
Former executive, Blackwater Worldwide
Joseph E Schmitz, 66, is a lawyer, former executive at Blackwater Worldwide and also a former inspector general of the United States Department of Defence. In addition, Schmitz served in the US Navy for four years, was an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, and founded his own firm, Joseph Schmitz PLLC. Schmitz is also a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
Human rights lawyer
Nina Shea, 69, is an international human rights lawyer and Christian religious freedom advocate. She is the former director for the Center of Religious Freedom at Freedom House. Since 2006, Shea has held the position of senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and directs the Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom. In 2009, she was appointed commissioner on the US National Commission to UNESCO. She was also the US delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council. She has authored two books on anti-Christian discrimination: In the Lion’s Den and Silenced.
Associate justice, US Supreme Court
Sonia Sotomayor, 68, has served on the United States Supreme Court since her appointment by President Barack Obama in 2009. She is the third woman and the first Hispanic to serve on America’s highest court. Prior to her appointment, Sotomayor served on the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and on the US Appeals Court for the Second Circuit. Although raised in the Catholic faith, Sotomayor has constantly challenged Church teaching throughout her judicial career and has constantly ruled in favour of abortion and same-sex marriage.
Associate justice, US Supreme Court
Clarence Thomas, 74, has served as a justice on the United States Supreme Court since his appointment by President George HW Bush in 1991. He is often described as the Supreme Court’s most conservative justice.
After falling away from his faith, he was reconciled with the Catholic Church in the mid-1990s. During his tenure as a Supreme Court justice, he has constantly defended Church teaching on marriage and family. He wrote a dissenting opinion in the 2015 Obergefell v Hodges case which legalised same-sex marriage, and he wrote a concurring opinion in the 2022 Dobbs v Jackson case which overturned Roe v Wade.
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