We need to repair the U.S. Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is running amok and it’s past time we got it under control. In the year since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, abortion has been effectively banned (with extremely limited exceptions) in 14 states. Nearly 1 in 3 Americans have lost access to abortion care.On top of that, the ethical crises keep piling up. We’ve seen Republican mega-donors footing the bill for Clarence Thomas’s vacations, mortgage payments, and family tuition; Samuel Alito taking dinners with conservative anti-abortion activists, accepting a lavish vacation from someone with business before the court; and Neil Gorsuch selling property to a law firm executive who had business before the court just days after his lifetime appointment was finalized.We can’t let this continue. Congress must stop the out-of-control, right-wing majority on the Supreme Court. The only way to do that is to restore ideological balance to the court by adding four more seats.I’m urging our legislators to stand up as a governmental body and rein in this illegitimate Court by passing the Judiciary Act.

Harold Conover, Mountain Center

Congress should fix the gaping holes in our democracy

Whether it's the latest headline about Trump's current and pending indictments, his campaign for the presidency, or news about yet another Supreme Court justice who has accepted gifts from wealthy donors with business before the court, Americans are engulfed in headlines about threats to our democracy and the rule of law. But we wouldn't be held hostage to the hypocrisies in our system if Congress simply did its job.

If it's illegal for felons to vote, why not pass a law to prevent them from running for president? If county, state and federal judges are required to abide by a binding code of ethical conduct, why not apply the same rules to Supreme Court justices? If no one is truly above the law, as Attorney General Merrick Garland repeatedly tells us, then why hold presidents above the law by making them immune to criminal prosecution while in office as a matter of Justice Department policy? And why does our government give presidents a pardon power that they repeatedly use to free convicted felons? Congress could stop this hypocritical madness tomorrow if it took its job seriously. Americans demand and deserve a true democracy. It's time for Congress to deliver it.

Jeff Crider, Palm Desert

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: We need to repair the U.S. Supreme Court