The recent Supreme Court decision extending individual freedom of speech rights to corporations is yet but another step away from what our founders conceived as a government "of, by and for the people" ("And now, the deluge," Jan. 25). It further enables the vast wealth and power of corporate entities to influence public policy well beyond the abilities of any individual or collective group of citizens. We have long witnessed the overwhelming success of health care, insurance, energy and other corporate lobbyists' in the service of their own financial needs rather than in the service of the public good. Likewise, corporate funding of both major political parties raises questions as to what degree our public servants are beholden to the public interest versus to the needs of their corporate sponsors.

The framers of our Constitution were careful to establish a system of checks and balances to ensure that no political/financial entity could amass sufficient power to overwhelm the influence of any other. However, they could not have anticipated the rise of our present day corporate system, nor formulate means to moderate its increasing impact upon government policy. In order then to maintain a truly representative democracy and to ensure that the voices and needs of our citizens are not subordinated, our present day legislators must establish similar systemic restraints upon corporate hegemony. We can no longer trust in the promise of judicial restraint to do so.

Irwin Fried, Baltimore

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