To the editor:

In response to George Will’s article on Sunday, March 20, the balance of power between the judiciary, the legislative and administrative branches is threatened by plans to have Dick Cheney, as the president of the Senate, rule that a simple majority is all that is needed to confirm a judicial nominee. This would overturn 200 years(!) of checks and balances that have served our country well.

The benefits of this maneuver would be the ability to confirm a nominee who may have less regard for fairly judging cases and more regard for promoting a particular political agenda. We all need to let our representatives in government know that this is a dangerous plan and that they should all work together to negotiate a better plan for confirming the nominations of justices.

Justices who are of a more mainstream character are easily passed through the confirmations. If the administration would nominate justices who would be more likely to support the judiciary system rather than pushing an extreme political platform, we wouldn’t even have a problem.

J. David Childers,

Lawrence