Originalists
So, the “originalists” on the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down Roe v. Wade, and based their decision on the fact that the “original” text of the U.S. Constitution did not confer a right to abortion. Well, duh!
In 1788, when the Constitution was ratified, females were clearly second class citizens controlled by the white male patriarchal “Founding Fathers.”
Well, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. The Judiciary Act of 1789 gave the Supreme Court original jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus, and that’s all. Constitutional judicial review began with the assertion by John Marshall, fourth chief justice of the United States (1801–35), in Marbury v. Madison (1803), arbitrarily deciding that the Supreme Court of the United States had the power to invalidate legislation enacted by Congress. That authority is NOT specified in the Constitution. So, pretty much everything the Supremes have declared since 1803 is (if we’re going to be “originalists”) simply “unconstitutional!”
Larry Lack
Marin County
Water Marin
I read the Marin water quality report 2021. In addition to dealing with fluoridation of people with fluosilicic acid that most cities must deal with, Marin water also contains 120 pCi/L of radioactive radon, plus carcinogenic 1,4 dioxane which at 4 ug/L exceeded temporarily the level at which the public must be notified (1 ug/L) with Marin averaging 0.6 ug/L. The report says that one site was used for this measurement and that subsequent measurements did not find detectable levels. But other sites need to be tested and a source for this chemical should be identified. Commonly nearby landfills leech this into water tables.
Richard Sauerheber
Marin County
