At a recent speech to an organization of Italian-American lawyers, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito expressed frustration over what he called "so much talk lately" about the court's Roman Catholic majority, the AP/Washington Post reports.

The views of Catholics serving on the Supreme Court "is one of those questions that does not die," Alito told the Justinian Society. He criticized "respectable people who have seriously raised the questions in serious publications about whether these individuals could be trusted to do their jobs."

Alito is one of six justices on the nine-member court who were raised Catholic, including the newest member, Justice Sonia Sotomayor. He said the Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom means that any concerns about Catholics serving on the bench should have been long settled.

The Roman Catholic Church often weighs in on legal and political issues, including abortion, the death penalty and same-sex marriage. Critics say the court's conservative Catholics -- Alito, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- are likely to apply Catholic teaching to their rulings. Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said he believes the focus on the religious makeup of the court "comes down to one issue, ... abortion." He added, "The people who are complaining about Alito and Roberts are the same people who would have nine Nancy Pelosis on the Supreme Court who are pro-choice Catholics" (Dale, AP/Washington Post, 10/20).

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