Letters To The Editor

CHURCH AND STATE

I appreciate your editorial of July 5, "A Judicial Lie: The Court Votes Against the Law."

It is essential to determine to what extent the personal religious convictions of each Supreme Court justice (?) influenced his position and actions. Have any of them violated Article 1 of the Amendments to the Constitution? Is enforced pregnancy (via the court) contemplated in Article XIII on "involuntary servitude"?

We have heard of efforts to "pack the court." I thought the Constitution was to be for everyone! Are we to have courts filled by political appointees, with the justices (?) with one kind of religious convictions over one period of time, and those with other religious convictions over another time period? I would not be surprised now to find that at least some justices (?) are hypocrites and liars. Might one or more be influenced by his religious convictions, but deny it when questioned?

Richard J. Hickey

Philadelphia

So Msgr. S.J. Adamo concludes "public good should always take precedence over free speech" (June 30).

Like many, he is disturbed over recent decisions of the Supreme Court.

His conclusion however, begs the question: What is his definition of ''public good?"

This country has a history of "public stifling" (or attempting to) free speech. And these 5-4 decisions that so irritate us are the rulings that have kept freedom alive.

I find it interesting that this issue surfaces shortly after the tragedy of China, wherein someone's definition of the public good resulted in the slaughter of its citizens.

I await Msgr. Adamo's definition of "the public good".

Joseph E. Thompson

Lansdowne

TIRED HOT HORSES

It hurts my heart and ruins my day when I see Philadelphia's horse-drawn carriages, filled with too many people in the heat and humidity, being pulled by one tired hot horse. This is cruelty to animals.

There are regulations for taxi cabs, why not for them?

Mayor Goode, please help these animals!

Only two passengers at one time, none at all if the temperature exceeds 85 degrees - and two days off a week.

Ms. Cornell Stahl

THE ODD COUPLE

Prejudice makes strange bedfellows. The odd couple from City Council, the lanky bourgeois Thacher Longstreth and the barrel-shaped throwback troglodyte Francis Rafferty again went into their annual hate-filled duel when Gay Pride Month came up in Council chambers.