Letters to the Editor

Running amok

The Supreme Court is running amok, and it’s past time we got it under control.

In the year since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, abortion has been effectively banned (with extremely limited exceptions) in fourteen states. Nearly 1 in 3 Americans have lost access to abortion care.

On top of that, the ethical crises keep piling up. We’ve seen Republican mega donors footing the bill for Clarence Thomas’s vacations, mortgage payments, and family tuition; Samuel Alito taking dinners with conservative anti-abortion activists, accepting a lavish vacation from someone with business before the Court, and allegedly leaking reproductive health decisions; and Neil Gorsuch selling property to an executive that has business before the Court just days after his lifetime appointment was finalized.

We can’t let this continue. Congress must stop the out-of-control, right-wing majority on the Supreme Court. The only way to do that is to restore ideological balance to the Court by adding four more seats.

I’m urging our legislators to stand up as a governmental body and rein in this illegitimate court by passing the Judiciary Act.

Linda Stegall

Hawkins

No good purpose

I am currently a resident of Fate, Texas, a retired school psychologist with 20 years of experience working in public and private schools as well as mental health clinics. After retiring, I then pursued an M.Div. and pastored two congregations for an additional 12 years.

I am very concerned over the new state law which allows school districts to hire and/or accept volunteer chaplains as counselors within our Texas public schools. I strongly urge local school districts not to hire or accept such volunteer chaplains as counselors. I fear such an arrangement will result in a degradation of educational services to students. It may cause educational malpractice.

Worse, such an arrangement appears to violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Providing such chaplains may result in contentious lawsuits and serve no good purpose for the student body.

James Bridges

Fate

Two birds, one stone

John Foster’s editorial in the June 23rd edition of the Tyler Morning Telegraph could have been titled “How to sound conservative but be financially irresponsible.” Congressman Nathaniel Moran voted against the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 claiming the compromises made by both sides were insufficient to please his constituents. In effect, his vote was a choice to jump into an economic abyss, the consequences of a default on our debt.

But no worries. Mr. Moran knew there was no chance for the bill to be defeated. So, a “no” vote resulted in no harm and made him look like a hero. Killing two birds with one stone.

I saw this strategy used at the local level. In 1996, two members of the seven-member Irving ISD Board of Trustees voted in favor of the annual budget but voted against the tax rate that subsidized it. Would it not have made more sense for the two to oppose the budget, along with opposing the proposed tax rate?

Recognizing Mr. Moran is a newly elected member of the House engaging for the first time in the formulation of the annual budget, I know he advocates from a conservative position. I ask him to act in a conservative manner, not a reckless and irresponsible one. I hope both sides of the aisle can work together in good will to reduce the debt and the annual deficits sufficiently as to prevent another debt ceiling stand off.

Michael Gregory

Tyler