Re: “This is not the time for Supreme Court to weaken federal judiciary” (May 21, Opinion):
Reading Erwin Chermerinsky’s column on the potential weakening of the federal judiciary brought back to mind Colorado’s invoking of the 14th Amendment to keep President Donald Trump off the ballot for engaging in insurrection.
Now a case of a clearly unconstitutional executive order rescinding birthright citizenship for some has devolved into whether a regional federal judge’s opinion should hold sway over the entire country. In the Colorado case, the question became whether a state had the right to disqualify a presidential candidate when it was the candidate who disqualified himself.
Lawyers, and justices, pride themselves in going further into the weeds than lay people. Apparently for them, the question would not have been whether the emperor had no clothes but whether the boy had standing to say so.
Thomas Rogers, Vashon
