The Terms of Debate

Death threats against a Supreme Court justice -- any Supreme Court justice, anytime -- are criminal and they are wrong.

But the fact that legitimate criticism of justices relying on foreign law has spurred some crazies to issue death threats doesn't delegitimize the criticism itself, any more than ugly and inappropriate protests outside military hospitals delegitimze responsible (even if incorrect, in my view) disagreement with the direction of U.S. foreign policy.

In the immortal words of Hillary Rodham Clinton, "We are Americans, and we have a right to debate and disagree . . ."