Some U.S. Supreme Court justices have been acting as if the court exists above the law and beyond any strictures. The two current longest-serving justices and even the chief justice show disdain for any criticism from the public or other branches of government, and show considerable disdain for previous hard-fought, carefully reasoned decisions. Justice Clarence Thomas even said that the court should reconsider the issues of contraception and same-sex marriage.
While demonstrating a haughty attitude about rulings, they are just as snooty about ethics. Here, again, they behave as though their actions are outside the scope of the ethics rules the rest of the judiciary must follow.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts often seemed to be an incrementalist, softening the conservative rulings produced by the majority during his term, taking small bites. This new majority is not having it — they go right to the extreme.
If the chief justice is concerned with the public’s opinion of the court, he should look in-house. The reasons Americans are unhappy with the Supreme Court are right there in the building.
Michael Hart, West Ridge
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No justice for Jaslyn Adams
So, U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson waxed poetic about the tragic death of a young innocent girl whose life and dreams were cut short by some felon (No prison for man who admitted buying gun used to kill 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams at McDonald’s drive-thru — July 26).
Yet the judge refused to give hard time to the straw purchaser because “it would be counterproductive to the progress he is making in his life.”
I guess the life of Jaslyn and the lives of her family members going forward, and their emptiness and pain, mean nothing!
Dom Sulimowski, Norridge
