Posted: Friday, July 10, 2009 12:00 am
Editor:
What bothers me greatly is the 5-4 decision by the United States Supreme Court involving the New Haven's firefighters lawsuit, which charged a violation of the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Again, what bothers me is the question - was a wrong made by the City of New Haven not honoring the test results, or was a wrong not made.
Here we have the four liberals, Ginsberg, Stevens, Souter and Breyer voting there was no wrong made by the city of New Haven, and four conservatives, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito, saying there was a wrong made by the city of New Haven. The swing vote was made by Anthony Kennedy in favor of the conservatives.
I have a suggestion for future cases for our U.S. Supreme Court. Don't meet and hear any future cases. Why not just place a call to Justice Kennedy and ask how he feels about a particular case and then go vote. It just might save a little time and effort.
Maybe Thoreau was right, "Go to the woods and live deliberately and confront oneself with the bare essentials of life."
THOMAS SULLIVAN, Thermopolis