The bench and the ballot box

Re “Call of the West: Rein In the Judges,” Oct. 15

Call me an extreme left-wing liberal, but I learned in grade school that as citizens in our democracy, we go to the polls to elect legislators to carry out our will. If we don’t like what they do, we vote them out. We have a judicial branch that, under the Constitution, is independent from the legislative branch. Its job is to determine whether or not the will of the people -- legislation enacted by the officials elected by the people -- is constitutional (in accordance with the vision and dictates of the drafters of the Constitution). Were not our founding fathers, in enacting a three-branch governmental system with checks and balances, trying to protect the people from the abuses of a system in which one person or group can wantonly impose its will on everybody? As Joni Mitchell said, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

JOANNE POLVY COHEN

Sherman Oaks