Codispoti

*400 ORDER

The Constitution of the United States, Article VI, provides: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” The plaintiffs in this petition for rehearing renew their motion that I recuse myself because my “fervently-held religious beliefs would compromise [my] ability to apply the law.” This contention stands in conflict with the principle embedded in Article VI.

It is a matter of public knowledge that the Catholic Church, of which I am a member, holds that the deliberate termination of a normal pregnancy is a sin, that is, an offense against God and against neighbor. Orthodox Judaism also holds that in most instances abortion is a grave offense against God. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints proscribes abortion as normally sinful. These are only three of many religious bodies whose teaching on the usual incompatibility of abortion with the requirements of religious morality would imply that the plaintiffs’ business is disfavored by their adherents. See Theresa V. Gorski, Kendrick and Beyond: Re-establishing Establishment Clause Limits on Government Aid to Religious Social Welfare…