Sir, - Rory O'Hanlon (October 23rd) is right to say that judges are free to refuse to enforce immoral laws. Indeed, there have been cases of juries bringing in verdicts of "not guilty" in the face of clear evidence when they thought the law was morally indefensible.
However, if a judge's decision offends the popular will (whether the people be right or wrong) that judge cannot be surprised if the people, through their elected representatives, impeach him or her for seeking, in the name of a higher law, to overturn the laws on which the people have decided. The people must be free to see to the appointment of judges who will administer the people's laws.
But in fact Rory O'Hanlon does not want the judges to decide on the basis of their own conscience, since they have no training in moral philosophy. He thinks that a judge, to ascertain the moral law, should turn to the Roman Catholic Church, presumably even if the judge in question is a Protestant. Having refused to allow the tyranny of the majority in imposing an immoral law, he then reintroduces the tyranny of the majority by giving no rights to non-Catholics. Moreover, what if Catholics don't agree with their Church? The majority of the people might believe that X is right, but if the Church authorities say Y is right, the judge is to accept Y, according to Rory O'Hanlon's view.
The problem is that there is no way that we can know what is morally right without using either our own reason or the teachings of a religion to which we subscribe. And if human reason and the teachings of all the churches do not coincide, the only way the State can operate is by seeking consensus and, if consensus is not reached, by voting. If we in conscience cannot accept the vote as morally binding, we can offer resistance. But judges will have to do this on the same basis as the rest of us; that is, they are liable to be dismissed, persecuted and imprisoned.
The alternative is theocracy: the judges enforce the will of some church authority. - Yours, etc.,
John Goodwillie,
Old County Road, Dublin 12.