Justice Brennan

The death of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. (July 25) leaves the Bill of Rights without one of its leading guardian angels. For 34 years, from 1956 to 1990, Justice Brennan clearly and eloquently enunciated the view that the first 10 amendments to our Constitution, and the Reconstruction-era amendments that followed them, revealed “a sparkling vision of the supremacy of the human dignity of every individual” that was “transcendent, beyond the reach of temporary political majorities.”

Brennan was unapologetic in his commitment to a living Constitution, “with the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs.” In his many Supreme Court opinions on racial and religious equality, reapportionment, gender rights, criminal justice and privacy, Brennan vigorously applied his philosophy of an evolving Constitution to the protection of all persons, however downtrodden or despised. For Brennan, law was the means, but justice, always justice, was the end of judicial review.

Justice Brennan is gone, but his words will continue to speak as the constitutional conscience of the better angels of our nature.

BRUCE J. EINHORN

Agoura Hills

Despite the elaborate eulogies for Justice Brennan, to millions of Americans he will be remembered for only one thing--his part in crafting the devastating ruling that legalized abortion in America for the full term of pregnancy (read Doe vs. Bolton). While Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton are attributed to Justice Harry Blackmun, it was Brennan’s constant prodding that gave Americans the broadest abortion law in the world.

JOSEPH M. SCHEIDLER

Exec. Dir., Pro-Life Action

League, Chicago