◆ SpookStack

if 4 » 0-19 (Rev. 2-2-71) *¥ r my le Z ~étiers tothe & Surveillance and Rights _ To the Editor: Assistant Attorney General William H. Rehnquist's remarks in committee offer us an opportunity to assess how fac we have gone and where wé are . going op the road to Scif-enslavement. jEditoriai March 12.) We have already rights sacrificed to acquiescent legis- latures, over-eager agencies, or both —no-knock, Army surveillance, wire- tapping and computer dossiers are ai- ready part of our political culture, But “when a high Administration official . asserts, a5 a principle of government, . that these aspects of our citizens’ lives ‘ should be left to the sole discretion of - the executive branch, a new element. has been added. 7 The necessary implication of Mr. Rehnquist's comments is that a dice tatorship — hopefully benevolent ~ is the most appropriate form of gov- emment for this country. ‘ If his remarks are accepted by his listeners and by the public, then per- haps he is right. I prefer to hope that the other branches of Government wil] © offer us a safeguard for our lberties. FREDERICK, T DAVIS | New York, March 10, 1s7l , Sagi ec scen psrsonal © Ke pes rine ee ae Recourse to Congress o the Editor: . In your March 11 issue Penk Frank Askin criticizes the recent decisions e Supreme Court limiting ‘the wer of the lower Federal courts to ain state nrocesutions under alleg-— en 7join siate proscsunons Uncer é@ diy unconstitutional laws. Nowhere | in his lengthy criticism, or rather de- _ nunciation, is there a word about the. possibil: ty, open to him and those ; who share his views, of obtaining cor- rection from Congress. A stranger to our polity would sup-— pose that all these matters age ines- capably in the hands of th upremée Court--an impression often oaveyed | By commentators, especially academic _ ones. That Congress has complete con- trol over the exercise of jurisdiction by _the Federal district courts, and has- express constitutional power to en-" force, “by appropriate legislation,” the provisions of the Fourteenth Amend. . ment, upon which rests the imposition on the states of what Professor Askin . calls “constitutional vatues’—these things are perfectly well Known to _ him. But like so many others he ap- ’ parently prefers to seck salvation only _ from the Supreme Court. _ Aside from all other considerations, - > a precise statutory definitidn of the imitations on Federal court injunc-' tions against state prosccutions is im-' ‘ measurably to be preferred to a doc- trine to be extracted, if at all, so Pro- fessor Askin tells us, only from a study of seventeen separate opinions written by the justices in six cases. LEWIS LAYERS Naur Vo, March ar i ‘ gl? DREW s0i dc, March amy, ouia fo‘ i. Polson a _— alliveas, © a So 4 *: é Ci iohe a eel tnt . Bishop fe 7 ¢ srennan “CA: Calluhon = - Casper — Co aq ately roe 2 ae is Gale _J ie Rosen = é Tavel Walters Soy ars negro. Tele. Room Holm es Ga The Washibgton Post Times Herald The Washington Daily News: The Evening Star (Washington) The Sunday Star (Washington) Daily News (New York) Sunday News (New York) New York Post The New York Times The Daily World The New Leader The Wall Street Joumal The National Observer People’s World | MAR 241971 Date — . J Recs ba- 215¢5~ see ee “Nor RE-ORDEb LU L 19} ack } By mee ems an an wey 1