Correspondence

...Questioning the legitimacy of the American judicial regime, William Kristol writes that for over 40 years courts have claimed "the last word" concerning the Constitution's meaning, and "Two generations of judicial usurpation is enough" ("A President by Judicial Fiat," Dec...

...Here Brooks seems to have fallen for the Democrats' idea that you're a stupid, uneducated gun nut if you think abortion is wrong...

...Since I moved away from New York City no one of my acquaintance has seemed to have more than 20 books at home...

...The National Organization for Women (NOW) assured voters that abortion would be stopped by Bush appointees to the U.S...

...W.L...

...What lies ahead...

...Mighty thin reasoning there...

...sadly, many students don't even know or care because they take the view (wrongly) that if it isn't available on the Internet it isn't worth knowing...

...Last year I did the same, and while my book collection had nowhere near the breadth and scope of his, it still felt good to have a little room on the shelves for new books and new ideas...

...He will reach out to minorities with an inclusive, we-are-one-nation theme...

...Hopefully his administration will help rebuild the American values still held in the heartland, so sneeringly abandoned by the Hollywood celebrities and the media elites of the East Coast...

...At one point he writes, "Gore won among women with graduate degrees by 22 points," and then goes on to explain that they don't really believe in Democratic positions, but vote that way "as a sign [they] haven't sold out...

...Contrary to Brooks's prediction, perhaps we will find in the years ahead that high-tech people in places like Silicon Valley and Research Triangle Park are not all that susceptible to the allure of the responsibility-free life...

...Thanks for a glimpse into another world...

...Sliced a different way, the voting patterns showed that single independent women heavily favored Gore's pro-abortion position, while stay-at-home moms strongly preferred Bush's pro-life position...

...He might have mentioned the singular nature of heavily annotated and underlined books...

...And corrective constitutional amendments are virtually impossible to enact—the flag-burning amendment has never gotten through Congress despite public support...

...But it may be reversed...

...Al Gore foolishly lost the election by moving to the old Left, and the Democrats in Congress are made up of the same group...

...Nor should impeachment of egregious tribunes, especially on the lower federal bench, be out of the question...

...i'm sick of the old pathology-peddling talking heads...

...For years I used to pick up very clean pleiade editions with the name of their former owner written in them...

...Brooks thinks this trend will grow...

...JENNINGS Grand Blanc, MI OUT WITH THE OLD THANK YOU and thank you again...

...I also expect Bush to recognize that highly educated people (I would include teachers, public employees, and even journalists in this group) are open to a new fairness initiative...

...If these old conservative complaints are to get beyond whining, isn't it time to open a serious discussion of actions we can take to end judicial usurpation...

...our problem is not fighting off a resurgent Democratic party...

...Epstein did omit one category from his list of books...

...Bush's narrow win and close numbers will help with this...

...Moral leadership by President Bush, sorely missing these past eight years, can make a big difference...

...One reason I did not follow Epstein's example and purge all the books I have never read and probably never will read is the increasingly dilapidated condition of even our best libraries...

...If Bush reaches out they'll feel the same way about him...

...Conservatives must suggest reforms that are neither intemperate nor ineffective...

...My own experience is that most university and other libraries just turn around and sell them...

...Congress can enact declaratory and other forms of legislation correcting erroneous judicial policy (e.g., the 1862 Territorial Freedom Act, which contravened the Dred Scott holding...

...Presidents simply cannot guarantee the performance of their nominees on the bench...

...These people need leadership to get them out of the left-is-good swamp...

...Brooks touches on this issue in only one sentence, where he says the Democrats "can appeal to the educated class by being pro-choice and anti-gun...

...The Newberry, already owning a set of the Pleiades, sold his off...

...The other thing that gave me hope was that somewhere in the world there exist other people that have read books because they like to...

...These are indeed part of the autobiography of many of us non-writers, for whom these margin notes may constitute the best we have ever thought on matters outside the scope of our intellectually unglamorous daily lives...

...Instead of selling off his collection, I wish Epstein had given it to a university library where books still matter...

...Some believe there are essentially only two means: appoint judges who are not "judicial activists," or amend the Constitution to correct mistaken judicial decisions...

...MARILYN SCOTT-WATERS Costa Mesa, CA JOSEPH EPSTEIN HAS INSPIRED ME...

...not for money or for the grades, but for the pleasure...

...Bartlett's notion of giving one's books to a university sounds rather neater than it is...

...I went, buying a new house, about half of which is devoted almost exclusively to book storage...

...The few dollars he got for selling his books are far less than the value they might have brought to a hungry young mind wise enough to realize that it's not all on the Internet...

...I very much enjoyed Joseph Epstein's article on paring down his book collection ("Books Don't Furnish a Room," Dec...

...Correspondence REINING IN THE COURTS THE WEEKLY STANDARD'S articles on the judiciary contain many sensible criticisms of "our robed masters," the judges who came close to stealing the election for Al Gore...

...I may well take a page from his book, as it were...

...Nearly all of us have taken biology courses, so we should know perfectly well that life begins at conception, no matter how inconvenient that fact may be...

...For example, in the 1997 City of Boerne opinion, the Supreme Court cited a 1970 case known as Oregon v. Mitchell to show that it has the power to strike down Fourteenth Amendment enforcement laws, disregarding the fact that the holding they cited was reversed only a year later by the Twenty-sixth Amendment...

...Because of the rapidly rising cost of serials and computer databases, book collections everywhere are severely deteriorating...

...George w. Bush will complete his party's realignment by knocking the legs off George McGovern's old stool...

...Thus, the Democratic Leadership Council's move to realign its party has turned into a one-time derailment, and Ronald Reagan's new era will get back on track...

...The notion appeals to those professional office women who want complete equality with their male counterparts, including the "right" to enjoy sexual freedom unfettered by concern for the consequences...

...Still, that crisis began in the courts...

...Finally, Reagan showed Republicans how to unite with working people— union leaders may have hated him, but the workers loved him and knew he cared about them because he reached out directly to them...

...Conservatives profoundly disagree about the elected branches' authority to restore the constitutional balance of powers...

...We should begin a serious debate on solutions to judicial usurpation now that it has come to the surface because of the election debacle...

...Nationwide, the abortion lobby tried hard to turn this election into a referendum on abortion...

...Supreme Court...

...In the states, similar actions can be taken, including recall or "reconfirmation" elections of state judges...

...I found it oddly comforting that there might just be a place where people don't hide the fact that they have read books, as if reading were something to apologize for...

...Perhaps it is a California phenomenon, but here it is a rare thing to meet someone who reads at all, let alone the authors Epstein sent on their way...

...Republican presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush assured us they were naming "strict construction-ists...

...But, among others, we got Brennan, Blackmun, Stevens, Kennedy, and Souter, respectively...

...The political branches can take actions ranging from powerful symbolism (e.g., the president attending school athletic events at which students pray over loudspeakers, implicitly repudiating the recent decision banning such prayers) to non-enforcement of unconstitutional lower court decisions and blanket pardons (e.g., Jefferson pardoned those convicted of violating the 1798 Sedition Act, which he considered unconstitutional...

...When I asked a used-book seller who the man was, he told me that he used to work for the Newberry Library in Chicago, to whom he left his excellent books...

...These notes and markings also make the books much handier as reference works, but less desirable to used-book sellers...

...In Florida, a movement is developing to defeat Justice Anstead, one of the Supreme Court judges behind the atrocious Gore decision...

...DENNIS TETI Associate Professor Regent University Alexandria, VA SUNNY SIDE UP IN HIS ARTICLE "An Emerging Democratic Majority?," David Brooks misses a huge factor and thus misinterprets the demographics of this year's voting patterns...

...George W Bush has promised to restore principle, honor, and dignity to the presidency...

...BRUCE BARTLETT Great Falls, VA JOSEPH EPSTEIN RESPONDS: Mr...

...A liberating purge of my shelves is long overdue, so I can be accepted as normal by other human beings in America...

...Not many people bought that line, but professional women certainly did...

...That is the best hook on which to hang our hat for the new era...

...We must not forget that the U.S...

...I, too, have a vast library—at least 10,000 volumes—and recently had to make a choice about whether they or I would go...

...But most importantly, George w. Bush preaches faith and humility for America, and for Americans and their leaders...

...LAWRENCE A. KREIG Framingham, MA I READ WITH INTEREST Joseph Epstein's essay about disposing of his library...

...In their hearts they know it is time to move on, but they need to be able to feel good about themselves as they grow...

...Fortunately America has rich resources in its history, writings of the Framers and great statesmen, and constitutional logic to confront the judicial usurpation problem...

...our problem is to get beyond ego and celebrity...

...The "educated class," as Brooks calls us, may not sacrifice our votes just to keep abortion easy...

...Something a little sad about that, no...

...JANET M. BAKER Gaithersburg, MD THOMAS P. SHEAHEN Oakland, MD DESPITE THE ARMPIT-DEEP SNOW in Michigan, I am not looking over my shoulder for a new ice Age, nor am i particularly worried about David Brooks's new Democratic majority...

...The factor that Brooks missed is the issue of abortion...

...Moreover, judges get "the last word" on the interpretation of amendments...

...Supreme Court performed an indispensable act of statesmanship by bringing the 2000 presidential election crisis to a conclusion accepted by most Americans...

...i hope that means rewarding "we" thinkers and leaders from neighborhoods, campuses, and beyond...

...President-elect Bush—who has promised to support a partial-birth abortion ban despite the Court's prohibition of such laws—will need sound advice in order to save the courts from self-destruction...

...Both are inadequate...

...This is no simple task...