When I saw the name – Richard Casey – of the federal judge who struck down Congress’ ban on partial-birth abortion this week, I had a queasy feeling that he was a product of Catholic education. Is he ever: Casey (a Clinton appointee) graduated from the College of the Holy Cross (my alma mater too) in 1955 and Georgetown University Law School in 1958. The double-Jebbie grad is a mover amongst the hierarchy: According to the Fall 1999 issue of the Holy Cross Magazine, Casey received the “Blessed Hyacinth Cormier O.P. Medal at the Angelicum in Rome. … The citation recognized his ‘outstanding leadership in the promotion of Gospel Values in the field of justice and ethics.’” His good buddy, Syracuse Bishop James Moynihan, wrote a gooey hosanna to Casey last year in the diocesan newspaper, referring to his being a daily communicant and having a special devotion to rosary. And Catholic New York reports that Casey and Cardinal Edward Egan “have been friends for years and have visited Lourdes together three times.” Maybe their next trip can be to the grave of Roger Taney, the first Catholic ever appointed to the Supreme Court. By all accounts another devout RC judge, Taney (a Marylander) freed those slaves he had inherited because he morally opposed the institution. But not so much as to prevent him from authoring the disastrous Dred Scott decision, the moral forerunner of Roe v. Wade, to which Judge Casey this week has genuflected.