Court Nominees

Sen. Jon Kyl’s arguments about how fair the Republicans were to former President Clinton’s judicial appointments (“Throw Out Ideology as Any Judicial Test,” Commentary, July 1) are partisan hypocrisy. When the Republicans controlled the Judiciary Committee, Sens. Orrin Hatch and John Ashcroft denied Clinton appointees even a hearing based on ideology, while others had to wait two to four years to get a hearing.

Ideological extremism is the last thing we want a Supreme Court justice to have, because inflexible thinking makes common-sense judgment impossible. Currently, all the extremists on the court are on the right. William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas almost always vote as a bloc, which is a bad thing for a court that has become far too political.

Dave Silva

Seal Beach