To the editor: Law professor Ian Ayres attempts to define the problem with the U.S. Supreme Court as Republican versus Democratic appointments and Republican versus Democratic positions. We have always had a court more conservative than the public majority, and we have always had justices who wrapped their personal prejudices into legal theories, just as today.
What is different today began with the so-called Powell memo of 1971 — named for Lewis F. Powell, who would go on to serve on the court — outlining how American businesses could assert their power. Since then, there has been an organized, well-funded operation to seize the judicial system by conservative billionaires.
The simple mechanistic changes proposed by Ayres would not break that chain. Only a Congress that uses its power of the purse and its ability to regulate certain aspects of the court can bring the necessary balance between the branches as envisioned in the Constitution.
Norman Rodewald, Moorpark
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To the editor: It is rather disingenuous to claim that the “Supreme Court has come unmoored from American society and is losing credibility.”
Why is this a concern now? It certainly didn’t appear to be a problem when there was a liberal court majority for so many years.
It is quite apparent that Ayres and the Democratic Party are furious that the court, a separate branch of government, has a conservative majority, and they will now try to use whatever means to change that.
Janey Polak, Beverly Hills
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To the editor: I can maybe give Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. a pass when he says he didn’t know that the upside-down flag was used by MAGA Republicans, but Thomas?
How can any reasonable person not understand that accepting gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars will call your ethics into question?
And this is a court that has refused to create an ethical overseer? Does anyone remember the name Anita Hill?
Anne Beaty, Eagle Rock
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To the editor: In an authentic democracy, “we the people” would have the right to vote in or vote out justices in secret, legal and honest elections.
The justices would not be beholden to the party of the presidents who appointed them. That way, the justices would serve at the will of the people.
A real democracy is of the people, by the people and for the people.
John Rodriguez, Laughlin, Nev.
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To the editor: Alito in effect tells every woman in America what she can do with her own body — but he cannot tell his own wife what to do with the family flagpole?
Marla Allard, Washington
