 Other Catholic justices included Pierce Butler ( appointed 1923 ) and Frank Murphy ( appointed 1940 ) . Sherman Minton , appointed in 1949 , was a Protestant during his time on the Court . To some , however , his wife 's Catholic faith implied a " Catholic seat " . Minton joined his wife 's church in 1961 , five years after he retired from the Court . Minton was succeeded by a Catholic , however , when President Eisenhower appointed William J. Brennan to that seat . Eisenhower sought a Catholic to appoint to the Court — in part because there had been no Catholic justice since Murphy 's death in 1949 , and in part because Eisenhower was directly lobbied by Cardinal Francis Spellman of the Archdiocese of New York to make such an appointment . Brennan was then the lone Catholic justice until the appointment of Antonin Scalia in 1986 , and Anthony Kennedy in 1988 . 
