Christian Reynolds’ Dec. 10 letter about the gay marriage case in Hawaii was the silliest, most ignorant tirade I’ve read in a long time.

Do people no longer study American history and government in high school?

Do Americans no longer understand their own government?

Reynolds complains that the court judge in Hawaii “took power away from the legislative branch” by rejecting the discriminatory ban on gay marriages.

The exact opposite is true. We have three branches of government for a reason. Each one provides a check and balance to the other two.

The court in Hawaii did exactly what the courts are designed to do: measure laws against the Constitution. If they don’t measure up — and this only obviously does not — they are struck down.

The U.S. Constitution and the state constitutions are specifically designed to protect any and all groups from oppression by the majority.

The folks who are complaining that the Hawaii court went against the wishes of the voters can rest peacefully tonight knowing the system works.

If a majority vote was always the measure of justice, we’d still have slavery in America, women still wouldn’t be able to vote and inter-racial and inter-faith marriages would still be illegal.

The majority is not always right, and Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams knew that.

Scott Miller

St. Louis