Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Letter to the Editor:

Four conservative justices more than enough

It’s reassuring to see that the four U.S. Supreme Court justices who would allow the president to suspend the Constitution as he chooses will sometimes not get majority support.

In Thursday’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that prisoners cannot be held at Guantanamo indefinitely and without being charged with anything, the court acknowledged that the Bush administration doesn’t have “the power to switch the Constitution on or off at will.” Naturally, our president thinks this is a bad decision.

Our precious constitutional right of habeus corpus is meant to protect us from being imprisoned without being charged with any crime. We are all in danger when the president or the Supreme Court ignores that right.

But this close decision should also cause apprehension that a future president needs only one appointment to the court to give these “conservative” judges a solid majority in future decisions. One of the presidential candidates has said he would appoint this kind of judges.

Voters must seriously choose if they want to allow our Constitution to continue to be trashed by the president and the courts, or if we want a president who respects the Constitution.

Mel Lipman is president of the American Humanist Association, vice president of the International Humanist & Ethical Union, and former president of the Humanist Association of Las Vegas.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy