To the editor: Within the days of Jim Crow, it was typically stated that states’ rights needed to be revered by the federal authorities. That very same assertion of states’ rights and devolving energy to the 50 states returned within the Nineteen Seventies and was known as the Sagebrush Insurrection within the West.
Defending the rights of states to make their very own legal guidelines and set their very own regulatory requirements has been a primarily Republican tenant for the previous a long time. The federal authorities has develop into too robust, too highly effective, they stated.
So what occurs now? The U.S. Senate votes to nullify California’s deliberate transition to electrical and hybrid vehicles (“Senate votes to overturn California’s landmark ban on new gas-only automotive gross sales,” Might 22) and the federal authorities jumps in to maintain worldwide college students out of Harvard, a personal college situated within the state of Massachusetts (“Trump administration bars Harvard from enrolling international college students,” Might 22).
Why is it out of the blue OK to stomp on the authority of states? Why is it out of the blue OK to make use of an influence play in opposition to an academic establishment that’s not run by the federal authorities?
Edgar Kaskla, Lengthy Seashore
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To the editor: It is a additional step within the Republicans’ aggressive conflict on efforts to enhance the surroundings and tackle the worsening local weather change state of affairs. The Senate ignored warnings from each the Authorities Accountability Workplace and the Parliamentarian in regards to the defective authorized reasoning of their actions.
The basic issues with their strategy to the surroundings and local weather change: dishonesty and mean-spiritedness.
Dishonesty: Downplaying and suppressing info whereas not acknowledging the large hurt of unmitigated local weather change as proven by overwhelming scientific proof.
Imply-spiritedness: The indifference to the injury towards well being and security their actions will inflict on people and communities. For instance, stopping enchancment of air high quality will considerably hurt the well being of many, together with these with bronchial asthma, lung illness and coronary heart illness.
Jack Holtzman and Irwin Rubenstein, San Diego
