custom ad
OpinionMarch 10, 2005

To the editor: Your March 1 editorial dated, "Three branches," is frustrating to those of us who feel the courts have already exceeded their authority. The courts have corrupted and bastardized their constitutions, both state and federal, by usurping the power of the legislature...

To the editor:

Your March 1 editorial dated, "Three branches," is frustrating to those of us who feel the courts have already exceeded their authority. The courts have corrupted and bastardized their constitutions, both state and federal, by usurping the power of the legislature.

Your editorial would have one believe that the only recourse the people have with a policy they may disagree with is to run to the courts. As long as the amendment the Missouri Senate is proposing is constitutionally written and passes the amending process outlined in the state constitution, it should be perfectly legal. Those that disagree have no further legal recourse.

Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!

They do however have the final word, which is contrary to all the radical social policies that the left has fostered upon us through the courts over the passed 75 years. They can make changes at the ballot box. That's the way a representative republic is supposed to work.

I question the last paragraph of your editorial. I don't believe in the past that the legislature or the governor had the courage to overrule the court when the hundreds of millions of wasted dollars was forced upon the citizens of Missouri for the purposes of school integration. If they had that right, they sure didn't exercise it.

If a state constitution, including the amendments, is legal, then the courts have only one constitutionally judicial choice: uphold it.

GENE NELSON ISOM, Gainesville, Fla.

Advertisement

Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:

For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.

Advertisement
Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!