OPINION:
I do not know Jeffrey Scott Shapiro (“Another attempt at nullification,” Commentary, May 13), but it is quite obvious that he does not understand the process of nullification. I would attribute that to the fact that the subject of nullification is not being taught today, not even in our law schools.
Thomas Jefferson fathered the concept of nullification. He said that when the legislative and executive branches become similarly corrupted, it would be the Supreme Court that would consolidate their corruption. In case you weren’t watching, Justice John G. Roberts Jr. proved that assertion last year. Jefferson said that it would be folly to expect a problem of constitutional corruption in government to be fixed from within that constitutionally corrupt government. At that point, the three branches will have failed to check and balance one another.
It is altogether logical, then, to think that such a remedy must come from outside the Constitution. Nullification is most definitely an unconstitutional process, and unconstitutional is exactly what the solution must be if it is to work. The alternative to the failure of nullification is spelled out for us in Paragraph Two of the Declaration of Independence, the original draft of which was written by Jefferson himself; namely, “to institute new government.” Nullification might be peaceful, but pursuit of independence might not be.
ROBERT DI STEFANO
Abingdon, Md.
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