Day Curfew Is Unconstitutional

Bureaucrats are trying to bring Orange County a daytime curfew law, restricting the rights of children and denying the rights of parents to supervise their own children.

This law, if passed by Orange County city councils, would require children between the ages of 6 and 18 to have a note from a school bureaucrat (a note from the parents is not sufficient) explaining why they are not in school. This law would require the uniformed police of your city to stop all children who appeared to be of school age, even if accompanied by their own parents, and ask to see their papers from the school bureaucrat excusing the child from school and allowing the child to be at large in a public place.

The 1st Amendment to the Constitution forbids this type of law. It is undoubtedly unconstitutional. However, constitutional revisionists still push it.

BARBARA CARROLL

Cypress

* You must have had a broken thermometer when you took the temperature at the Villa Park council session regarding a daytime curfew (“Daytime Curfew Angrily Opposed Before 3 Councils,” Aug. 28). Public testimony was taken, all in opposition, the mayor read a resolution, the council adopted it, people cheered.

Intensity, yes; anger, no. Excitement regarding common sense is not anger. The proposed ordinance, though well-meaning, is proof that good intentions do not always lead to good laws.

The list of ordinance supporters includes important members of our community (chiefs, prosecutors and superintendents), but one class of people is strikingly missing--parents. This irony is also striking: We have a society desperately idolizing youth; we just don’t want them in public.

LEN BECKMAN

Anaheim