■ “Vietnam, Cambodia Edging toward War” (Washington Post, Wednesday, January 4). In the interest of neutrality, both sides should receive all the very latest weapons.
■ The Supreme Court has ruled 5 to 4 that a judge can order a telephone company to assist federal law enforcement officials in installing devices to record outgoing calls from a targeted phone. At issue was whether such devices—they’re called pen registers—might be used illegally to monitor conversations on the suspect’s phone. In overruling a lower court, the Supreme Court bought the argument that any law enforcement officer using the pen register for unauthorized wiretapping was already, under law, subject to “severe criminal sanctions and civil liability,” and that, consequently, no further restrictions need be placed over its use by court order. The assumption is that the courts are around to protect individual rights, which include the safety of life, limb, and property, from those who conspire against them.
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