Opinion

Read any history of the war between government censors and free-speech advocates in 20th-century America, compare those struggles to the ones now ongoing, and a curious shift becomes visible.

To the editor:

The struggle for civil rights and liberties is a dominant story line coursing through more than two centuries of U.S. history. The stories typically start with a minority group prevented from enjoying the same rights as the majority. The minority group complains about this discrimination, and if nothing changes, it seeks relief through the legislative process. But the majority controls the legislative branch, where public opinion and political expediency often take precedence over constitutional tenets.

Democrats in the Legislature love to talk about creating “green” jobs. So they passed SB152, designed to train some Nevadans to help weatherize homes and the like.

To the editor:

Despite giveaways designed to win votes from coal-mining states and others likely to be heavily stomped, “Many environmental groups” still support the 940-page greenhouse gas permitting bill that was endorsed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 21, because “it still creates a ‘cap-and-trade’ system,” The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The kind of political shenanigans that play out every day in the legislative and executive branches of government — conflicts of interest, pay-to-play allegations, ethical missteps — are intolerable within the judiciary. Judges must ensure all who come before them are treated fairly and impartially under the law. Judges must be beyond reproach.

To the editor:

A titillating title

On Monday, Barack Obama became the first Democratic president in 15 years to nominate a justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, selecting the reliably liberal Sonia Sotomayor to replace the outgoing David Souter.