Readers React: The failure of lawmaking based on liberal ‘conscience’

To the editor: A judge deciding cases based on his conscience is a judge living by a personal conceit known as the rule of man rather than the rule of law. (“Judge Harry Pregerson, leaving the bench at 92, always followed his conscience,” Dec. 27)

And the evidence of the type of damaged thinking that that can lead to is retiring U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson’s belief that homelessness is the driver of drug and alcohol use rather than an outcome. This is the type of thinking — pervasive among liberals — that has led to trillions spent on social programs that have produced little and only anecdotal success.

I do not believe that Pregerson reaching the age of 92 is an excuse to celebrate the endorsement of those results.

Kip Dellinger, Santa Monica

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To the editor: In reading about Pregerson and his guidelines for making legal decisions in his court, I am reminded of my own writing guidelines, which state “Your head holds the words, but let your heart do the writing.”

Pregerson clearly has the intellectual ability and the knowledge to be a judge, but he added another dimension to his rulings — his conscience.

His kind of thinking seems to be becoming passé in today’s society. That is sad, as more than every now we need people in all walks of life and in all professions to combine their mind with their conscience in their decision-making.

Pregerson will be missed.

Ed Hieshetter, San Diego

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