Filling the Supreme Court Vacancy

Regarding your recent editorial “Restoring Balance to a Controversial Court” (March 20) I am surprised The Times did not give retiring Supreme Court Justice Byron White the glorious send-off it gave to Thurgood Marshall.

The Times says that White was “somewhat of a puzzle.” “Puzzle”? I find nothing “puzzling” whatsoever about a man who avoided partisanship and voted to defend the defenseless: The rights of minorities to vote, the right for children to pray, and the rights for the unborn to live.

However, White did not hand out justice like it was candy. He didn’t support quotas or legislation based purely on sexual preference. White the progressive liberal didn’t change, it was the radical left wing of liberalism that decided that everyone was equal, but some were more equal than others.

Ironically, the same press that decried the so-called litmus tests of the Reagan and Bush administrations will certainly not oppose President Clinton’s litmus tests for a pro-choice justice to replace White.

MICHAEL ALLEN

Burbank