There is another aspect of Judge Pryor's courage that goes unnoticed, even in the Times profile. The profiles notes that Judge Pryor is a Roman Catholic. (Of course, Pryor's religion was made an issue, by both sides, during his confirmation fight, in regrettable fashion). The article does not mention, though — and I have not really heard others mention this — that for a Roman Catholic public figure in Alabama (the home, remember, of Hugo Black, who made his name defending a man charged with killing a Catholic priest) to stand up to Judge Moore's antics and showboating with the Ten Commandments is also quite courageous. I have no doubt that, in some quarters, Pryor's refusal to go along with Moore's defiance triggered nasty, and even anti-Catholic, grumblings. Here, for example, is one blogospheric commentator and Moore partisan accusing Pryor of being a "secular humanist." Here, another blogger laments Pryor's "treachery" in the stand-off between the "Catholic" Pryor and the "Christian" Moore. And here, another enlightened "conservative" commentator calls Pryor a "turncoat Judas."

Judge Pryor is, in my judgment, a credit to the law, and to the bench.