Serious questions raised about court legitimacy

Noah Feldman’s commentary, “Ending Roe is institutional suicide for Supreme Court” (June 27), is right on the mark, with the minor exceptions of a single sentence and a few omissions.

The Supreme Court, despite the protestations of some of its current members, is and has always been a political institution. As the American journalist and humorist Peter Finley Dunne observed in 1901 through fictional bartender Martin J. Dooley, “the Supreme Court follows the election returns.” In this case, the majority of the court ignored the most recent election returns and instead hearkened back to the 2016 election returns, as three appointees of the disgraced former president voted in contradiction to their sworn Senate confirmation testimony, but consistent with the political reason they were nominated.

What is omitted from the op-ed are the serious questions about the legitimacy of the court as presently constituted. Clarence Thomas votes on issues that his wife has a direct and active interest in, conduct that would not be tolerated in a federal district judge. Neil Gorsuch is only on the court due to the cynical hypocrisy of then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the spineless, bootlicking Republican senators he fronts for. So too Amy Coney Barrett, whose rushed confirmation gave the lie to Mr. McConnell’s dishonest rationale for denying a confirmation vote to Merrick Garland.

The Supreme Court’s cavalier disregard for precedent will simply encourage a similar disregard when the court becomes differently constituted, as it invariably will at some point. This would be a concern to true Justices, but not to those beholden to a political agenda.

— Michael Schatzow, Baltimore

A ‘bunch of partisan hacks’

Regardless of one’s opinion of recent Supreme Court decisions, it is clearly time to recognize one fact: The Supreme Court has nothing to do with law. We have to stop viewing the Supreme Court as an august body of Solomonic judges who sit on high and dispense evenhanded justice. The court is entirely about partisan political power, not unlike the Senate or House of Representatives. Consequently, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who in a speech several years ago claimed that “this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks,” must stand corrected.

— David Mayhew, Cockeysville

Extremists on court are shredding our rights

So we have reached a point in our long democratic experiment where five or six unelected people, three of whom were given their lifetime job by a president elected with less than half of the popular vote, can cavalierly upend the lives of millions in our country in pursuit of their extremist Republican agenda (“Supreme Court sides with high school football coach who prayed on field after games,” June 27).

Guns? It’s a return to the Wild West where anyone can carry a weapon in public and decide what to do with it. “Pregnant people?” It’s no longer a woman’s constitutional right to choose whether or not to give birth to a child, regardless of the circumstances which resulted in her pregnancy. Our government is now making that decision for her.

Separation of church and state, as enshrined in the Constitution? It is now perfectly legal for taxpayers’ dollars to fund religious education. I shudder to think what other rights in this country are now lined up on the U.S. Supreme Court’s chopping block. What a sad week it has been for America.

— Nancy Sinclair, Towson

So much for freedom of religion in the US

We’re supposed to have freedom of religion. It’s in the Constitution. We don’t have freedom of religion if we need to obey the precepts of someone else’s religion. If you think the Republicans haven’t come after your civil rights yet, make no mistake, they’ll get around to you as soon as they get a majority in Congress. (“It now falls on states like Maryland to uphold women’s right to choose,” June 27) The only possible defense against being turned into a religious oligarchy, like Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan, is if we call up everyone we know in the red states and remind them to go to the polls in November and vote Democratic all the way up and down the ballot.

— Henry Farkas, Pikesville