Justice Blackmun
* The long overdue departure of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun is very welcome news (April 6-7). And this time the President needs to nominate someone other than a lawyer as the replacement. Someone with a proven mind, ability and most of all common sense; all of which the Supreme Court is sorely lacking.
The Supreme Court must be made to start looking like America, and not in the nonsensical terms of race, gender or ethnicity, but in its diversity of experience and the grounding, reference and breadth of its wisdom. The President’s choice must be a matter of picking the best brain available, and it doesn’t matter from where--business, science, the arts, sports even--just so we get away from intellectual corruption and stagnation of the lawyer-politician monopoly.
PAULA BRENNAN
Newhall
* One regrets the resignation of Blackmun from the Supreme Court. He was among few on the court who showed concern for the excluded, the marginal--from the handicapped, the Haitians, to the poor.
He will be remembered for his stands on affirmative action, the separation of church and state and abortion rights, but above all he will be remembered for his approach to the death penalty. It is to be condemned, as Blackmun has said, because it is arbitrary and biased against the poor and blacks. With his stand on the death penalty, he has thrown a wrench into the machinery of death.
DON RADEMACHER
Los Angeles
* “Blackmun’s List”--30 million aborted babies and counting.
MARK L. JACOBSON
Long Beach
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