Letters: End HSR | Gun ruling | The people decide | Constitutional remedy | Nation’s storm | Gun restrictions

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Without out moneyto run it, end HSR

Since Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature approved another $4.2 billion for high-speed rail, why is no one discussing what it will cost to run the trains? BART is nowhere near supporting itself and the “bullet” train will probably lose hundreds of millions per year.

Where will that money come from? Our “leaders” will tell us now that it is here, we must raise taxes to run it.

This is unacceptable, and we need to cut our losses and stop this project.

Chris WoodPleasanton

Court contradicts Roeruling with gun ruling

The Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, guaranteeing the right to life of the unborn. The Supreme Court also struck down New York’s concealed carry law, allowing people to carry a concealed weapon without needing a permit to do so. This ruling comes in the aftermath of children being gunned down while at school.

As unthinkable as it is, one wonders if gun rights advocates view the shooting deaths of children as unfortunate collateral damage in the defense of the Second Amendment. One may also wonder if conservatives interpret the Second Amendment as a license to kill in self-defense.

If Republican lawmakers won’t, and the Supreme Court won’t, one wonders who will guarantee the right to life of our beloved born children.

Jeanne KinkellaSan Leandro

The people will decideafter justices’ rulings

Numerous editorials, articles and Letters to the Editor have criticized the Supreme Court’s recent decisions, primarily over disagreement with the result reached by the court. Two of those decisions, one dealing with abortion and the other with EPA’s climate change regulation, are among the most controversial.

The abortion decision removes the issue from nine unelected justices to where it belongs: back to the people through their states’ elected representatives.

The EPA case found that Congress must clearly delegate such an important subject to the regulatory agency, which it did not. Congress could achieve that result by enacting a law or by clearly delegating such authority to the EPA. So the Court removed power from an unelected bureaucracy and gave it back to Congress.

Both cases result in placing decision-making where it belongs: with the people’s duly elected representatives.

Robert CoffmanMoraga

Constitution providesremedy for court

The writers of our Constitution provided us a remedy for unjust judges who substitute their prejudice for the law when making decisions.

That remedy is given in the U.S. Constitution Article III, Section 2 which places limitations on the Supreme Court: “… with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.” Article III of the Constitution enumerates the functions of the Supreme Court. The enumeration does not include jurisdiction over prior Supreme Court decisions. There is a good reason. If a decision can be fallible, it is just as likely the current rather than the previous Supreme Court decision is wrong.

When laws need modification or new laws are needed, we, the people, through our elected representatives in Congress, will cause this to be done. Congress must approve legislation that makes prior Supreme Court decisions off-limits.

Edward McCaskeyDublin

Nation’s storm bringsout best in citizens

When the air is still, the American flag drapes itself around the pole – a muddle of blue, white, and red – its beautiful design indiscernible. As the wind begins to blow, the flag unfurls – some of the stars appear and the stripes become crooked lines. Only when the wind turns into a gale does the flag’s full glory appear – every star shining bright, every stripe straight and bold.

America today is facing some pretty strong winds. It’s at times like this that our nation’s full glory appears: Heroic men and women standing strong in the face of intolerable opposition, the institutions established by our brilliant founders arrayed together to sustain the Union, and the good and kind hearts of the American people stitched together by our common love for this great and glorious nation.

Paul ShankwilerWalnut Creek

Fewer gun restrictionsbring safer states

Gun ownership is higher in states with fewer restrictions, and homicide rates in these states are lower, according to George Mason University Professor Emerita Joyce Lee Malcolm, even though calls have rung out across the nation demanding gun control laws in a bid to curb violent crimes such as the recent series of mass shootings.

A red flag law, a waiting period for gun purchases, licensing requirements, and numerous other gun controls did not prevent the July 4, 2022, Highland Park attack.

Don DeSarmeWalnut Creek