It 's more complicated . . .

I'm not sure what it means to say that the Catholic Justices who were in the majority in Carhart, or in the minority in the Texas cases, "were not motivated by the authoritative teachings of the Church."  Yes, and again, in neither case did Justices Kennedy, Roberts, Alito, Thomas, or Scalia substitute their religiously-grounded moral commitments for the law, as they understand it.  That said, and although -- to be clear -- I would like to see the death penalty abolished, I disagree with Eduardo (as I suggested, in response to Michael, here and here) that there is "authoritative church teaching" on the question whether a federal judge reviewing a state court's denial, on procedural grounds in state postconviction proceedings, of a death-row inmate's Penry II claim is required to vote to reverse that denial.