GOVERNMENT HAS RIGHT TO RESTRICT FINANCIAL AID

After reading Marilyn Morrison's response ("Drug policy discriminates
against certain students," April 10) to the "Groups sue for financial
aid for drug offenders" editorial (March 30), I felt I had to write
in. There are so many mistakes in her letter it is embarrassing. First
off, you state that the Higher Education Act violates the equal
protection clause of the Fifth Amendment which reads, "nor shall any
person be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law." This sounds like a compelling argument, but if you actually
read the Constitution you claim to be so fond of, you would realize
that what you quoted is not the equal protection clause but rather the
due process clause. If you were in search of the equal protection
clause, you would have to read the 14th Amendment, not the Fifth.

Second, going with the equal protection argument, court precedent has
held that for a law to violate the equal protection clause it must
deny a specific class of people certain fundamental rights. Now I
haven't read the Constitution today, but I don't remember there being
a right to federal financial aid to attend college. Let's throw out
the equal protection argument.

You also claim that the conclusions by the Exponent were not supported
by the law or Constitution. If you looked into court precedent at all,
you would find that the Exponent's conclusions were right on. Chief
Justice Rehnquist said in the majority opinion in the case of DeShaney
v. Winnebago that, "the Due Process Clauses generally confer no
affirmative right to governmental aid ... " This means that the
government can set stipulations on how it distributes money. If
Congress says you can't receive financial aid because of a drug
conviction, tough luck. They have every right to deny aid based on
your criminal record.

Mike Eddy

Senior, College of Liberal Arts