Supreme Court fight scene: Take 2

By nominating right-wing judicial activist Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, President Bush has squandered an opportunity to heal the nation’s wounds. A centrist candidate would have appealed to a greater number of Americans, but our feckless leader has determined that conservatives are more important than centrists or progressives. A Senate filibuster regarding this nomination would be a positive development.

DAN FREEDLAND

Rolling Hills Estates

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How ironic that Rosa Parks is being honored in Washington at the same time that the right wing of the Republican Party wants Bush to nominate the type of justice who would have never voted, in Brown vs. the Board of Education, to overturn previous court decisions rationalizing the “separate but equal” doctrine. In Brown, the court acted to preserve and protect the “living Constitution” rather than remain passive in the name of an ossified document that built slavery into its “original intent.”

PHIL BRIMBLE

Los Angeles

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Now that the Harriet E. Miers incident has proved that conservatives have been lying about that “no litmus test” business all along, it’s time for moderates and liberals alike to stand up and demand that a true centrist take Sandra Day O’Connor’s place on the court, rather than allow the president to cram another reactionary ideologue down our throats.

ALONSO DURALDE

Rolling Hills Estates