This week's Letters to the Editor

Liberty wept

Based on Alito’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, any personal right that was not enumerated in 1866 when the 14th Amendment was written is not protected. Alito implied

his reasoning applied only to abortion. But in his concurrence, Justice Thomas pointed out that the Dobbs precedent would apply to other practices, including same-sex marriage and contraception, birth control pills.

In Dobbs, reactionary Catholics on the Supreme Court applied Catholic theology to American law, effectively breaching the separation of church and state. Justice Sotomayor, also raised Catholic, wrote in her dissent that the practical result of Dobbs was that the state could force women to bear children against their will, like livestock, depriving them of their bodily autonomy. And if the state could do that, it could, under Alito’s reasoning, deprive them of any personal right that was not recognized in 1866, including the right to marry someone of another race, which was illegal in 1866 in 18 states and was not overturned until 1967, 20 years before Clarence Thomas married his wife Ginni.

There is a rather straightforward solution to this: Congress should increase the number of justices on the court to 13 and overturn Dobbs for the misogynistic assault on women that it is. 

Chip Northrup, Cooperstown

We're going to need more prisons

The Gilbane Company, Turner Construction, and Correction Corporation of America may not be on your personal radar, but they will be after June 2022. How come, you ask? I’ll tell you. With the Supreme Court denial of the right to abortion procedures, many states will immediately activate criminal charges against any persons engaging in any activity that contributes to an abortion. Federal protection will no longer exist for a person’s right to choose. The states will control the criminal proceedings.