The Constitution and breaking the law

So Rafael Perez (March 2) thinks that there is a constitutional directive to support DEI, send lifesaving care to emaciated children in poor countries and to ensure that the U.S. leads the world in scientific research. I don’t see any of those in my read of the Constitution. Not to suggest that they aren’t worthy causes, just not evidence of “breaking the law.” I would suggest that Mr. Perez reads Justice Gorsuch’s recent book “Overruled.”

In it he’d find that the citizens of the United States are overwhelmed with laws, many of which are written and implemented by an ever-growing unelected bureaucracy.

Breaking a law today is a daily occurrence for most Americans, wittingly or not. Tossing around the “rule of law” bromide would be better suited for a philosophy class rather than an op-ed.

— Steve Miller, Long Beach

Fiasco in the Oval Office

With his angry, loud performance in the Oval Office, President Trump disgraced himself. Trump showed graphically that diplomacy should always be conducted behind closed doors until a firm agreement is reached. Trump is a creature of television reality shows, though, and never saw a camera he didn’t like. So much for Trump’s claim on the campaign trail that he could settle the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. Trump was repeatedly corrected in front of the press last week by Macron, Starmer, Zelenskyy and British reporters about Putin’s trustworthiness, who pays tariffs and how much the U.S. and Europe have contributed to the Ukraine war effort. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security advisor during 2017-8, was right about Putin having a hold on Trump. Groucho Marx’s remark in “Duck Soup” in 1934 might apply to Trump: “If you think this country’s bad off now, just wait till I get through with it.”

— Gary Lynch, Hemet

Boot the media

In his March 2 column Mr. Greenhut describes the Associated Press as “the paragon of balanced nuts-and-bolts reporting.” I now know why I so often disagree with the newspaper and particularly Steve Greenhut. Most of your “straight news” stories are written by the AP, which has an obvious left-wing bias. Straight news reporting should have no political bias. The fact that Mr. Greenhut sees this as balanced reporting is disturbing.

— Marte Amato, Huntington Beach