Once a reliable Democratic voting bloc, Catholics have emerged as a pivotal swing vote in recent presidential races. Evenly divided in a poll over the summer, Catholics make up about a quarter of the national electorate and about a third in the pivotal battleground states of Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Thousands of protesters, many of them demonstrating against the war in Iraq, marched on Monday through the streets outside the arena where the Republican National Convention is being held, with some smashing windows and battling with the police in clashes that led to more than 250 arrests.

When Kansas City lawyer Carlos D. Romious showed up to court on June 18, he at one point asked the judge, “Are you a pedophile?” Romious, who had been prone to intemperate outbursts, had previously wadded up papers and smashed them with his shoe after taking the documents from his opposing counsel.