Thursday, Aug. 19, 2004 | 9:03 a.m.
Currently there are four U.S. Supreme Court justices who are in their 70s or 80s. Because of this, the next president will more than likely be able to nominate two or more justices.
What this means to those who value the right to privacy, as established by a long line of case law, is that the next president could either confirm and protect this right or erode it through his selection of new justices.
Presently there are three justices who are hostile to this right. They are Chief Justice William Rehnquist (who wrote the dissenting opinion in the Roe v. Wade) and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justice Thomas best expressed the views of these justices when, in the Lawrence versus Texas case, where the majority of justices held that Texas sodomy law was unconstitutional, he wrote in the his dissenting opinion that he "can find neither in the Bill of Rights nor any other part of the Constitution a general right of privacy."
Although these three justices are now in the minority, an additional of two or more justices of the same hostile attitude would undermine the right to privacy. They would likely not only cause Roe v. Wade to be overturned when any cases about abortion comes before the Supreme Court, but also other cases involving relationship privacy.
A vote for John Kerry will protect our most precious right, the right to privacy.
RICHARD BRATTAIN
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