Chief Justice Rehnquist vs. the Cause of Equality

How interesting that in “From Law Clerk to Chief Justice, He Has Slighted Rights” (Commentary, May 17), Cass Sunstein states that the memo penned by then law clerk William H. Rehnquist was uncannily prescient. This, of course, is in reference to the present-day “sentiments of a transient majority of nine men” (oh, that should, of course, be nine persons).

One thing that he can be called prophetic about, his statement that “attempts ... to protect minority rights” by the Supreme Court over 150 years “have all met the same fate ... and crept silently to rest,” would indicate that any conservative agenda that Chief Justice Rehnquist may now be pushing will be swept away in just a few generations because of the cyclical nature of the Supreme Court.

Hmm. A century and a half of equal rights, a century and a half of denial and oppression, then back to a century and a half of “all men are created equal.” I hope Rehnquist, too, is prepared to see his work “fade in time.”

Blair Caugherty

Palm Desert

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“Impeach Earl Warren” billboards occupied prominent positions along U.S. highways in the 1960s. Those hateful signs were erected, in part, as a reaction to the great desegregation decision then-Chief Justice Warren engineered in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education.

Fortunately, Warren was not impeached. However, as Sunstein points out, Rehnquist opposed the Brown decision and has thwarted efforts to protect minority rights. The most important unaddressed issue in the current presidential campaign involves Supreme Court appointments. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) has a stellar record on civil rights. His court appointments would honor the work of Warren.

Jerry Wallingford

San Diego

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So let me get this straight.

Rehnquist’s flight on a corporate jet to Ohio to give a discretionary speech is permissible because a knee injury makes commercial flight difficult (May 16). Yet he thinks it’s fine that George Lane, who needed a wheelchair, be carried or crawl upstairs to make a mandatory court appearance instead of requiring a Tennessee courthouse to accommodate Lane’s disability (May 18).

Jonathan Mandel

Encino