Letters to the Editor: The hypocrisy of Amy Coney Barrett's opponents was on full display

To the editor: Let's acknowledge that the Republican senators who wouldn't give President Obama's Supreme Court nominee a hearing in 2016 are indeed hypocrites for working now to quickly confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

That said, your editorial is also guilty of hypocrisy. On the one hand, you say you abhor the 5-4 split in many cases in which the Republican-appointed justices are on one side and the Democrat-appointed justices are on the other, and on the other you want a nominee to disclose how he or she will rule on certain issues.

Frankly, that seems based on an ignorance of the specificity of issues usually presented to the Supreme Court. Historically, justices do not decide any case and the issues involved therein until all arguments are presented to them.

John F. Masero, San Pedro

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To the editor: Democrats are calling this process "illegitimate" because voting is already underway in the 2020 election.

President Trump was elected to a four-year term. Are the Democrats saying he should be neutralized now and kept from fulfilling his responsibilities? I remember that the Obama administration was working up until the end trying to investigate Trump's campaign.

My, my, the hypocrisy of it all.

Paul Andersen, Yorba Linda

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To the editor: I appreciate the collegiality that ties our representatives together. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are friends. Blue and red politicians are friends.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have served together in the Senate since 2003. Feinstein can hug and praise Graham all she wants for how he conducted the confirmation hearings, but she should do so in private.

On balance, Feinstein has served her country and the state well. She's made some questionable choices, but what politician hasn't? Yet now, that hug she gave to Graham is all that people will remember.

There was nothing fair or good about this hearing. Feinstein, of all people, should have called the Republicans out on this.

I always thought of Feinstein as a bridge builder in times when the Senate was controlled by Democrats. When it was GOP-controlled, she was the strong dam protecting us from a flood of inequality. Now, I feel like I'm the one who's been sandbagged.

Carolina Sasson, Santa Monica

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.