Dear Justice Scalia,

How can you say that the Cross is not a religious symbol? Is it really the “most common symbol of the resting place of the dead? ”

How many Christian die in ratio of the addition of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and all other religions?

You have not lived your life as a non Christian, especially in the South. When I first came into this country, I came with a commodity lacking in the US, a brain. My children were enrolled in River Oaks Baptist School in Houston, Texas.(ROBS) There, they were probably the best students (they subsequently went on to Yale and Duke while the majority of ROBS students have IQs like Mr. G W Bush), they were severely discriminated against because of their race and religion. They were given bad evaluations, put in lower level classes, and constantly put down.

Once when we were seeing a Japanese dance, my six year old daughter commented that “mom can I paint my face white when I go to school.” When I asked why, she replied that , “then kids would play with me, and teachers will love me.”

She was told to expand on a bible verse that said that people who believe in images are like dogs. We are Hindus.

When I went to law school at South Texas College of Law quite a few teachers thought that I was not smart because of my skin color or ethnic origin. I graduated third highest from that school. I also studied on a full academic scholarship. Oh yes, grades were blind, profs did not know whose papers they were grading.

When I go to Court, the many judges do the same thing, look at me as if I don’t know anything. And yes, in Texas Courts, the Judges have bibles on their desk. Its a chilling reminder to me that me and my faith are outsiders to this country.

We have to decide, whether we will be the open country for all religions, like we were when the pilgrims came, or be pro one religion, like Iran.

Look at the list of Nobel Laureates in Science in 2009. How many of them are American Citizens? All but one. How many of them were born in America? None but one.

Justice Scalia, unless we create a tolerant society, we will loose our standing in the world. Do you really want to go back to the 50s America?

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Last night during Pres. Obama’s speech on health care to the joint session of Congress, when President Obama said that the new plan would not cover illegal immigrants, Republican Senator Joe Wilson fro South Carolina could not hold back and shouted “You lie.” Without going into the fact that this was totally disrespectful, and not the way any US Congressman should behave, and reminiscent of those town hall meetings where conservatives just wanted to shout down any debate, we can safely assume that Mr. Joe Wilson hates illegal immigrants.

For the record, Obama’s administration is much harder on illegal immigrants than Bush’.

The E verify program has been extended in Obama’s time to encompass ALL federal contractors. The ICE crackdowns on illegal workers are much harder and frequent than the previous regime. For the first time, the money used to prevent fraud on H-1B categories is being utilized to see if any employer is violating the terms of the H-1B visa. And the health care bill in Congress now SPECIFICALLY prohibits illegal immigrants from the bill.

Yes, illegal immigrants are here. They work for us. Many pay taxes and get sick. Most of them wind up in emergencies when they have something serious. The price tag for that is staggering? So what does Republicans like Joe Wilson want to do? Make the illlegal workers work in out kitchens, our gardens, and as soon as they become sick, deport them post haste? Are we becoming Nazis ?

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Today I am ashamed to be a lawyer from Texas. The recent issue of the New Yorker had a story about one confirmed case where the State of Texas put an innocent man to death. Mostly because the Texas Board of Parole and Pardon did not READ a forensic report in the man’s file!

Cameron Todd Willingham woke up one December morning in 1991 to his house burning in fire. He was found by a neighbor in the porch with soot on his chest, screaming, “My babies are burning up.” Even though by fireman’s accounts, he tried disparately to run into the burning house and save his three children, he could not. The fire was too intense and the firemen restrained him. His children died. The forensic report from Texas said that the fire was intentionally caused by Mr. Willingham. The Defense Attorney wanted him to plead guilty for a life sentence, but Mr. Willingham said he would not plead guilty to a crime he did not commit. This was taken by the Court to be a sign of unrepentance, and he was, like so many others in Texas put on death row.

However the forensic report was based on witchcraft and had NO scientific merit. Dr. Gerald Hurst, a Nationally acclaimed forensic expert studied his file pro bono and concluded that there was NO WAY the fire could have been started intentionally. He concluded that the forensic evidence in Wigginham’s trial was based on “junk Science.” But the members on the Texas Board of Pardon and Parole did not even bother to read the Hurst report!

Texas has the highest death penalty rate than any other democracy. We put God knows how many innocent people to death. How are we different from North Korea, Iran or China? And if we are the same, how can we morally criticize those countries?

From all over the world people come to the United States as a beckon of freedom and liberty. We don’t hesitate to lecture to other countries whenever we see any breach of freedom. Yet we put innocent people to death! Shame on Texas and shame on all the lawyers who are licensed to practice in this State. And that includes me.

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Mr. Obama’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice Judge Sotomayor has lived the American dream, from a poor household in the Bronx, to Suma Cum Laude Graduate in Princeton, to Yale law school. Yet there has been a lot of criticism about the fact that she said that her experiences as a hispanic will lead her to have a different world view than say a white male. The conservatives have labeled her a racist. Yet, can we ever be race neutral? Stephen Colbert aptly points that out when he says he does not see color.

Sentient human beings believe in things, shaped by their experiences in life. A republican may have a pro life, pro second Amendment, anti gay views. A democrat may have the opposite. yet each individual can argue and give rational explanations for their beliefs.

Yet, someone of Sotomayor’s intellectual capability can dissociate their private beliefs and look at the facts of a case. Can Scalia, Roberts or Alito ever rule for, lets say a gay couple, no matter how compelling the facts of the case are? Are they then not being prejudiced as well?

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On May 4, 2009 the Supreme Court in an unanimous decision declared that in order to be a crime for identity theft, the person must know that he is stealing the identity of another person. Flores Figueroa V United States No. 08-108.

Mr. Ignacio Flores Figueroa entered the US illegally from Mexico and presented his employer with a false social security card, and green card bearing his name. He did not know that the numbers belonged to real persons. The Government charged him with aggravated identity theft crime. But in the US, a crime must have a mental (mens rea) component to it. For instance, if a person is insane and does not know right from wrong, and commits a murder, she cannot be held criminally liable. In order to commit a crime, a person should must have the intention to commit the crime.

The Supreme Court pointed out that in most cases proving that the user knew the identity of the person stolen is not difficult. But the documents that Flores produced had his (Flores’) name on it. He did not know, that the number belonged to a real person in the United States.

People who had their identity stolen will obviously be outraged. But we have a long standing tradition in this country that a crime has to have a mental component. If we let this tradition slip, we will have to jail people who unintentionally commit a crime. The State has no moral authority to take away the liberty of people for their unintentional act. Stolen identity can be restored, although this may be a painful process. But taking away the liberty of a person violates the very principle of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that the United States was founded upon. I applaud this unanimous decision by the Supreme Court.

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