Is the Unitary Executive Theory Connected with Religion? Is the Pope Catholic?

Sometimes it takes a while to see connections. Sometimes it's what you hear, not what you see or read.

Happened to me the other day. I was listening to NPR's report on the upcoming impeachment trial, and the lawyers who are, according to Jay Sekulow, "raring to go" to defend 45. With the small amount of information at the other side's disposal--and the supposition that the refusal of their side to turn over anything, documents or people, somehow diminishes what they have to deal with--they might, like 45 himself, look better than they're supposed to.

But it's their backgrounds that made me pause. William Barr is Roman Catholic, and believes in the "unitary theory" of the executive, which is to say that, like 45 has bragged, the Constitution has actually meant that he can do just about anything he wants within the executive branch, never mind what previous presidents have or have not tried to do.

Pat Cipollone has been stonewalling information and people from the start of the suspicion that the president might have to undergo some kind of legal scrutiny (he got out there in front of it all and defends 45's interaction with Ukraine), so I'd guess he's probably a proponent of unitarianism himself. Pat Cipollone is Roman Catholic. He is 53. He and his wife have ten children.

Look, I have no right to snoop upon his private life, but--anybody with ten kids and is Catholic would probably have a very papal-centered viewpoint of birth control, which is to say, Pope Paul VI, who, in 1965, said that birth control was a no-no, never mind abortion or even condoms.

Cipollone, who Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham considers a friend, is the co-founder of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. The other co-founder is Rick Santorum, former Senator from Pennsylvania and staunch defender of 45, whenever possible, in CNN conversations.

In this week's New Yorker bio piece on Barr underline his Catholic connection, of which he does not flinch whatsoever. Barr and Cipollone have been on the board of directors of the Catholic Information Center, as has Leonard Leo, the executive vice-president of the Federalist Society, who has led the charge to put archconservatives on the federal courts and has been 45's chief guide on the selection of judges.

The Catholic Information Center--a rather benign-sounding title--is located on 15th and K Streets, NW, in Washington, DC, just blocks from the White House (just off 16th and H, though the address is, as we know, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.). Its website describes itself as a "Catholic intellectual hub that serves professionals in and around the DC Metro area." Its mission is to "help professional to live integrated lives of faith that bring the richness and beauty of Catholic teaching to bear on their professions and communities." To integrate one's life of faith to bear on one's profession? Again, sounds benign, almost blessed. But when expanded, it gives its adherents permission to crush the separation of church and state which this country has cherished through more than two centuries, especially when employed in government service, which undoubtedly some of its members are.

Other Catholics in 45's immediate orbit include acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow; and the very dislikable Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon.

Neil Gorsuch, the first of 45's Supreme Court appointees, is Episcopalian but was raised Catholic. And Brett Cavanaugh is Catholic. So is Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by President Reagan, presently presiding over 45's impeachment trial. So is Clarence Thomas, appointed by Bush-41. So is Samuel Alito, appointed by Bush-43. Only Sonia Sotomayor, appointed by President Obama, is the only Democratically-appointed Supreme Court justice. She calls herself a "cultural Catholic." And so was the late Antonin Scalia, also a Reagan appointee.

(I was raised Catholic, too. But I left the church in early adulthood, seeing that its attitude toward women and women's rights--never mind its awful record of child molestation, which came to brighter light later on; try watching "Spotlight" and keep going all the way through the credits--was something I couldn't reconcile. I am now Presbyterian. Their decisions are very definitely not made by a single person.)

So. Six of the last nine Supreme Court appointees are Catholic, or have Catholic roots, and have been appointed by Republican presidents. What will happen when William Barr approaches the Court and claims that 45 has every right to prevent anybody else from seeing any documents associated with him, including members of Congress seeking to impeach and/or convict him, simply because he's the president and that's that? What will happen to his unitary theory that the president has complete power over the entire executive branch, that nothing, especially including the Justice Department, can hold itself astride it but not be directly answerable to it in the name of impartial justice?

We will see. But these are Catholics, who supposedly bend to the theory of the infallible pope. The head of the church is to be unquestioned on issues of faith. There's supposed to be a difference--a separation, as it were. But the concept of the singular, unassailable leader strikes deep.

Will William Barr continue to build a firewall against the checks and balances provided by the Constitution? Is the Pope Catholic?

Be well. Be careful. I'll see you down the road.


Mister Mark