Democrats Providing Checks and Balances

Michael Ramirez implies in his editorial cartoon (Commentary, May 4) that the congressional Democrats are defacing the U.S. Constitution. In fact, they are fulfilling their constitutional responsibility, which is to represent their constituents and to act as a check on executive and judicial power. It is no accident that the Legislature comes first in our Constitution; Congress was seen by its authors as the branch most representative of the people.

I am pleased that congressional Democrats are doing everything they can to stop judicial appointments that represent a far more conservative view than I would like to see in the federal courts. If the Republicans were doing likewise, I suspect Ramirez would represent them as the American eagle protecting the Constitution. Perhaps the Ramirez cartoon should be lining the bottom of that bird cage.

Deborah Robbins

Los Angeles