Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected]
In law school you learn “to think like a lawyer.” To think like a lawyer is to believe that the law, (statutes and case law and the history that surrounded it), is larger than you or your political or religious beliefs. In some sense the law is a religion in and of itself. Following precedence is the correct thing to do because it is the only thing that ensures our mutual belief that justice is constant and above the fray even when political institutions are failing to meet our needs.
When the Supreme Court chooses a political philosophy over “settled law” on abortion, or when it ignored the plain meaning of the insurrectionist clause of the 14th Amendment, or even more glaringly when it ignores judicial ethic rules, it chips away the legitimacy of our judicial system. Once that is gone, there is no underpinning upon which our democracy can rest.
Jeffrey Lovit
Retired lawyer
Addison
