 When the Supreme Court was established in 1789 , the first members came from among the ranks of the Founding Fathers and were almost uniformly Protestant . Of the 112 justices who have been appointed to the court , 91 have been from various Protestant denominations , 12 have been Catholics ( one other justice , Sherman Minton , converted to Catholicism after leaving the Court ) , eight have been Jewish and one , David Davis , had no known religious affiliation . Three of the 17 chief justices have been Catholics , and one Jewish justice , Abe Fortas , was unsuccessfully nominated to be chief justice . 
