Letter: Supreme Court is eroding our rights

Thursday, July 12, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.

Since reading the Las Vegas Sun editorial of June 26, "Shifting balance of power," with its powerful beginning sentence regarding recent ill-boding Supreme Court decisions, my thoughts on that subject have been simmering on my mind's back burner. They began to sizzle after reading the Sun's July 7 publication of columnist Tom Teepen's critique of other court decisions, headlined "Echoes of Bush will be heard for years in the halls of injustice," giving me impetus to express my thoughts.

Mincing no words, Mr. Teepen thoroughly familiarizes us with more of the shrinking of our freedoms by the current court; I must add at least two other past court decisions to the list that affect our rights: the eminent domain ruling and the decision on a student's right to free speech. The latter is a poor lesson in how the court kowtowed to the government's anti-drug program, brushing aside students' First Amendment rights. Accordingly, I have several suggestions:

Call upon the ghosts of our Founding Fathers to sentence the guilty justices to recurring nightmares, requiring their copying our Constitution 100 times each night until they comprehend what they have written.

Justices who on occasion disagree with the majority are to be rewarded with pleasant dreams of reading aloud their dissenting opinions to the other justices several times each night, emphasizing their allegiance to the Constitution, with the others hopefully perceiving their errors.

Second, Congress should begin to amend the Constitution, allowing a tenure of no more than 10 years on the bench, and retirement at age 75.

During deliberations, justices should consider a sprinkling of common sense.

I believe some of our justices looking down from their lofty benches have lost touch with us, the citizens, and our country.

Leopold A. Potsiadlo, Las Vegas