Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Republic needs a strict rule of law

A republic is a form of government that is governed by law. Our country was founded as a republic governed by the Constitution, which is the law of the land. In recent times, the Constitution has been reinterpreted in many ways. Is the United States still a republic?

The author of a column in the Sun entitled “In the good old days” states, “Well, I’ve said before that, just as the framers of the Constitution were imperfect, so was that hallowed manuscript they created. Those Founding Fathers’ greatest gift was drafting a document that would be adaptable to the changing times that were sure to come and indeed keep coming.”

Of course, the Constitution may need updating, but the framers provided a way to change it. You change it with an amendment. If the courts can change it with their interpretation, we do not have a government by law but by interpretation. There is no law at all if a judge can change it any time with his decision.

A republic needs a strict rule of law. If times change, the law must be changed to adapt. Congress and the states must pass an amendment to the Constitution. We cannot have judges change it with their rulings, even if it is the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s purpose is to determine if a law is constitutional or not. The Supreme Court must have a strict interpretation of the Constitution. If the Supreme Court expands or changes the original interpretation, the Constitution becomes meaningless and we do not have a republic.

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