The San Francisco Chronicle quotes Professor Robert Weisberg on the complicated intersection of law and religion in the personal opinions expressed by Justice Antonin Scalia. 

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is both a death penalty advocate and a devout Roman Catholic. He has said he would quit his job if he believed capital punishment was immoral, or if Catholic doctrine considered it immoral.

On Thursday, Pope Francis, leader of the world’s Roman Catholics, told Congress he is working toward “the global abolition of the death penalty … since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes.” He noted that U.S. Catholic bishops recently renewed their call to end the death penalty and said he supports them.

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Still, said Robert Weisberg, a Stanford law professor, the line Scalia has drawn is extraordinary and probably unprecedented for a Supreme Court justice. “He acknowledges that he allows his religion to trump his reading of the Constitution,” although so far he has managed to reconcile them, Weisberg said.