This year’s US Leaders Special Report reflects the new realities of American public affairs. Just as one Catholic left the White House, after Joe Biden finally decided to withdraw from seeking a second term of office, then Donald Trump returned to power with another Catholic – JD Vance – as his vice-president, and a cabinet packed with conservatives who wear their faith on their sleeves.
In this third section of the report, we’re looking at those turning first principles into real safeguards and protections for real people, spotlighting Catholic lawyers, judges and advocates who defend conscience, due process and the vulnerable with rigour, civility and courage.
Samuel Alito
Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
Samuel Alito 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 Catholic and, following 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.
Amy Coney Barrett
Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
Amy Coney Barrett 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 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 overturn Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey.
Brett Kavanaugh
Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
Brett Kavanaugh serves as an associate justice of the US Supreme Court. Nominated by President Trump in 2018, Kavanaugh’s confirmation was marked by a closely contested vote in the US Senate. Prior to his appointment, he held the position of US circuit judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Kavanaugh is of Irish Catholic descent. He has participated in serving meals to the homeless as part of church programmes and has also given his time to tutoring at the Washington Jesuit Academy, a Catholic private school in DC.
Leonard Leo
Co-chair, The Federalist Society
Leonard Leo is an American attorney and a conservative advocate and one of the most influential Catholic lay leaders and philanthropists in the US. He held the position of vice president for an extended period at the Federalist Society and currently serves as the co-chairman of the organisation’s board of directors alongside Steven Calabresi. He was instrumental in securing funding for, and ensuring the appointments, of most of the six conservative judges on the nation’s highest bench, including Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who voted to overturn Roe v Wade.
Leo is also an important figure working behind the scenes to sustain Christian values in public life as well as championing free speech. Having served as the national co-chairman for Catholic outreach with the Republican National Committee and as the Catholic strategist for the 2004 Bush presidential campaign, Leo is a leading Catholic in the field of law. He holds a position on the board of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast and has contributed to the boards of both the Catholic Association and its affiliated Catholic Association Foundation. Leo has a BA from Cornell University and a JD from Cornell Law School. He is a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and has seven children with his wife, Sally. They live between Northeast Harbor, Maine, and Washington, DC.
Charles LiMandri
Lawyer
Charles LiMandri is an American lawyer based in California, known for his legal battles in defence of religious freedom. One of his prominent cases involved litigating against the American Civil Liberties Union in defence of the Mount Soledad Cross in San Diego, a case that extended over 25 years. In 2002, LiMandri founded the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF) to support his pro bono work advocating for religious freedom. In 2021, he achieved success in litigation against the State of California before the US Supreme Court, compelling the governor to open churches for 40 million people. In 2022, LiMandri merged the FCDF into the Thomas More Society, a Catholic public interest law firm dedicated to promoting and protecting traditional family and pro-life values, as well as the religious freedom of Christians.
George D Molinsky
Partner, Taft Law
George D Molinsky, a partner at Taft Law in Cincinnati, specialises in corporate law. Best Lawyers named him Cincinnati’s lawyer of the year for mergers and acquisitions law (2017) and venture capital law (2018 and 2021). He serves as a board member for Ruah Woods, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, and the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee. He studied at Notre Dame University, where he obtained his BA and JD, laying the foundation for his successful career in corporate law.
Thomas Moore
Senior partner, Kramer, Dillof, Livingston & Moore
Thomas Moore, a senior partner at the New York law firm Kramer, Dillof, Livingston & Moore, is one of the best trial lawyers in the US. He has a remarkable success rate, having won nine out of ten cases, and been named lawyer of the year multiple times by Super Lawyers magazine. He is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, an elite group consisting of the top 100 trial attorneys in the country. Moore studied at the Catholic University of America and Fordham Law School. He has funded scholarships for Fordham and endowed a chair in trial advocacy.
John Roberts
17th Chief Justice, US Supreme Court
John Roberts has served as the 17th chief justice of the US Supreme Court since his appointment by President George W Bush in 2005. He is one of 15 Catholic judges in the Supreme Court’s history and one of six on the current Supreme Court.
Joseph E Schmitz
Former executive, Blackwater Worldwide
Joseph E Schmitz is a lawyer, former executive at Blackwater Worldwide and also a former inspector-general of the US 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.
Nina Shea
Human rights lawyer
Nina Shea is a distinguished international human rights lawyer and advocate for Christian religious freedom. 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, where she directs the Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom. Shea was appointed commissioner on the US National Commission to Unesco in 2009. She also represented the US as a delegate to the UN Human Rights Council. She is the author of two books, In the Lion’s Den and Silenced, both addressing issues of anti-Christian discrimination.
Sonia Sotomayor
Associate justice, US Supreme Court
Sonia Sotomayor has served on the US 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.
Clarence Thomas
Associate justice, US Supreme Court
Clarence Thomas has served as a justice on the US 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. Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Supreme Court.
Photo: graphic by Arcadia
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