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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 6, 1993                   TAG: 9302080268
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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INTERPRETING THE CONSTITUTION

IN RESPONSE to Edward Lynch's Jan. 31 letter to the editor, "Can't liberals read Constitution?":

I ask: Can't conservatives read Supreme Court briefs? Perhaps Lynch doesn't know it but the Constitution is subject to interpretation by a highly respected branch of government called the Supreme Court.

Lynch finds it strange that "liberals" can find a "right to abortion" in the Constitution. It is the Supreme Court that interpreted a variety of penumbral rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and 14th amendments to the Constitution, including the so-called right of privacy.

In Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruled that "a right of personal privacy . . . does exist under the Constitution" and that this "right of privacy" extended to abortion rights, with certain restrictions after the first trimester.

Lynch contends that the " separation of church and state' . . . is not even suggested by the words of the First Amendment." He ought to read that amendment, which states, " . . . Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

He might also benefit from reading the 1962 Supreme Court case Engel vs. Vitale, in which the Supreme Court ruled that " . . . by the time of the adoption of the Constitution, our history shows that there was a widespread awareness of the dangers of a union of church and state." Following this statement, Justice Black contended that the First Amendment is "a prohibition against governmental establishment of religion." RYAN BROWN BLACKSBURG

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