European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 23, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes sunday september 23,1990 . Rosentha Gorbachev tried but failed and his Era is Over the Gorbachev Era of soviet history began in the Spring of 1985. It ended in the summer of 1990. Day after Day the news from the soviet Union has been that what Mikhail Gorbachev tried to do has failed and is Over. He tried to reshape the country to make it More efficient and permissive yet keep it within the boundaries of the soviet Empire and under the direction of the communist party. The news of the end of the a a Reform Era however still has not penetrated the consciousness of the West. It has escaped in particular the attention of Western politicians and soviet affairs specialists who tied their futures so tightly to Gorbachev. The Man still has continuity value to his county and he May stay on in office As president of the soviet Union for a year or two. Suddenly though it does not seem to matter much anymore. The Job has Little Long Range significance and Gorbachev s chief opponent will not touch it. Boris Yeltsin has better things to do a mainly bringing about the dissolution of the Hodgepodge of conquered nationalities the president is supposed to govern. Inside the soviet Union the end of the Era if not the Man is told by lines outside bread stores and empty shelves inside. For the five years of the Gorbachev Era the soviet Union marched resolutely backward. Now he has no place to Retreat to keep any remnant of the system alive though he searches still. Only a year or so ago Gorbachev was swearing that he would not preside Over the dissolution of the soviet Union. With the help of the United states he blocked Baltic Freedom. Now the question is How Long the republics will perpetuate the fiction of control by Moscow. All this is no Surprise to soviet fighters for human rights who spent years in communist jails while Gorbachev was climbing the soviet ladder. Some of them Admire Gorbachev for his initial boldness. None of them i know believed for a moment that he could do the impossible a make the soviet Union work within the communist Structure to which he Clung. But the collapse of the Gorbachev Era is hard for Western politicians and intellectuals to accept. Many of them either never understood the full corruption of the soviet system or glossed it Over. I can smell the smoke As a few american economists bum their own books the ones that told us How efficient the soviet system really was. Somehow american leaders including president Bush convinced themselves that the interest of the capitalistic United states was to insure the Success of something called perestroika a cockamamie a a plan on How to succeed through  Lewis Only recently in Helsinki Finland Bush still solemnly praised perestroika by then Long cold in the grave. If soviet citizens paid any attention at All they were saying a perestroika who a so Yeltsin a Star rises. He once talked total Murk and acted the Buffoon no longer. He has moved intellectually far faster and further than Gorbachev who now pants behind. Yeltsin Calls not for Reform but for rejection of soviet statism and the dissolution of the soviet Empire. Gorbachev could not win fighting that platform and he wont try. But Yeltsin concedes that he is still regarded with suspicion by some of his countrymen because he made his career through the communist party. Vladimir Bukovsky is a soviet human rights activist who saw the soviet collapse coming while westerners thought the system would last forever. He writes in the new Republic that fair or unfair Yeltsin May also be a transitional Power because of his communist bureaucrat background. Anyway americans should not try to pick the leaders of the soviet people by changeling All help and attention to one person. Lets not make the same mistake again a picking a hero focusing Only on him denying a Chance to Young newcomers and Veteran soviet Freedom fighters who have not yet made american front pages and talk shows. American economic and technical help should no longer be funnelled through the Gorbachev Kremlin. The Gorbachev Era May be Over but the explosion it brought blew open new opportunities for american business. They ought not be wasted. Deals with old time soviet bureaucrats will not stick for Long because they Are signing for what does not belong to them. Finding the new entrepreneurs and capitalist minded officials of the breakaway republics will take More time and sophistication. But that is where to look for profit a and for the new Era of soviet history. C now York time Souter a principled belief deserves support judge David Souter has already made a Large contribution to Public understanding of the supreme court. In his nomination hearings he demonstrated that the right Wing attack on the court Over recent years is the work of extremists outside the american constitutional tradition. They will surely be taken less seriously from now on. The re has been bitter right Wing criticism for example of the courts 1965 decision in Griswold is. Connecticut. It struck Down a Connecticut Law that made it a crime for married couples to use contraceptives. A majority of the court said the Law invaded a marital privacy implicitly protected by the Constitution. Robert Bork writing last month in the new York times said the court had a a invented the right of privacy in the Griswold Case. The right he said was a nothing More than a warrant for the court to  Souter told the Senate judiciary committee that he believed the Constitution Quot does recognize and does protect an a enumerated right of  he said the marital privacy right protected in the Griswold Case was  that Shaip difference reflected a More general Issue Over How to read the Constitution. The dominant tradition for 200 years has been for judges to define such grand phrases As a due process and a a Liberty and a equal Protection by looking to values accepted As fundamental. But Radical right Legal theorists argue that judges should enforce Only the specific words of the Constitution and the specific intentions of its framers. Again Souter altogether differed with that Radical theory. A my approach to interpretation is not a specific intent approach a he said. He would look for a meaning and principles in the phrases of the Constitution a not confining ourselves to immediately intended  that approach agrees with the traditional View that the framers deliberately used Broad language indicating values but not trying to bind the future with specifics of their age. A particular example of conflict came Over the ninth amendment which provides that a the people retain rights against government that the Constitution does not specify. Bork has dismissed the amendment As meaningless a a water blot on the constr  Souter said the amendment might indicate that the rights specified in the Constitution were not meant to be  Souter was nominated by a Republican president presented As a conservative and accepted As such by the conservative movement. Yet the approach he spelled out to constitutional judging differs sharply from that of the Radical Legal right. When Bork was rejected by the Senate in 1987, his supporters claimed that he had been done in by unfair politics. They and he have kept up that cry Ever since. But the Souter hearings made clearer than Ever that that is an invention. The truth is that the Public did not want a Radical break from our constitutional history. Souter a Calm scholarly expression of the traditional View now shows where the Center is. An especially interesting feature of the hearings was Souter a admiration for the late Justice John Marshall Harlan. Harlan was a cautious judge who nevertheless gave profound expression to some of the great rights in the Constitution. It was his approach to marital privacy As a fundamental aspect of a a Liberty that Souter followed. Sen. Charles Grassley a Iowa asked him about Federal judges a creating new rights out of whole  Souter answered that there were a Sun enumerated rights a and he would seek to define them As Justice Harlan did by looking to american history and tradition to understand a what might be called the Bedrock concept of  no one can predict or should be Able to How Souter will vote in specific cases. But in the hearings he lowered the temperature of the debate about the supreme court and that matters. Maybe he even turned us Back toward civility. William Bradford Reynolds assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration made a characteristic right Wing attack on Justice William j. Brennanjr. In 1986. He said Brennan a jurisprudence was a a major threat a perhaps the major threat a to individual Liberty under our  when Souter was asked about Brennan he said a Justice Brennan is going to be remembered As one of the most fearlessly principled guardians of the american Constitution that it has Ever had and Ever will  c new York Tolmei