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David Souter in 2005.Credit…J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press
To the Editor:
Re “A Warning From Justice Souter: Too Much Ignorance Will Imperil Democracy,” by Adam Liptak (Sidebar column, May 13):
Justice David Souter was prescient in raising the alarm in 2012, long before the Trump presidency. Like Justice Souter, the founding fathers were instructed by the fall of the Roman Republic and fashioned our separation of powers to avoid its pitfalls.
Now President Trump is attempting to sweep aside constitutional restraints on executive power and establish “presidential government,” with the legislative and judicial branches diminished and compliant.
Mr. Trump’s authoritarianism is built on his cult of personality. Will his corruption of American constitutionalism become so structurally embedded that any successors could rule without the cult? That is the unresolved question.
Steven Berkowitz
New York
To the Editor:
David Souter, the former Supreme Court justice who died last week, once stated, “I don’t believe there is any problem of American politics and American public life which is more significant today than the pervasive civic ignorance of the Constitution of the United States and the structure of government.”
A course on our Constitution — what it says and what it means — should be required for high school students at every school, public and private, in the country.
Leonard Malkin
Detroit
To the Editor:
Re “For Trump, the Constitution Is a Hindrance as He Pushes for Deportations” (White House Memo, nytimes.com, May 5):
I have a suggestion for responding to President Trump’s stated ignorance of his obligation to defend the U.S. Constitution despite swearing an oath of office less than four months ago to do just that.
