President Joe Biden has told Texas officials numerous times that they do not have the authority to close the Southern border orput up razor wire there. While I sympathize with Texas, what the president is saying is that Texas does not have the legal right to interfere in federal matters.
While Biden has a point, this separation of powers, for some reason, is lost when it comes to former President Donald Trump. This is especially true of Trump’s criminal trial over hush-money payments to an adult film star, allegedly used as illegal campaign spending. But, Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign reports are under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
The Federal Election Commission looked at this and found no violation on Trump’s part. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to prosecute the former president over this.
So, why is New York City, specifically the Manhattan district attorney, taking on the federal government’s job by prosecuting this case? Under Biden, I am sure if a crime was there, the federal justice department would have gone after him for this, just as they they prosecuted Trump’s Jan. 6 supporters.
Ever since the Russian collusion case was pursued against Trump while in office — taxpayers’ money was for used for a probe in which a special prosecutorcould establish no collusion case — there appears to be a cottage industry of going after the former president on flimsy charges.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin sometimes uses lethal means to get rid of his opponents, I find something similar is now happening in this country.
This is disturbing, and people who believe in the Constitution should speak up.
Yvonne Balcer, Jersey City
For this voter, Ciattarelli is unfit
Regarding 2021 Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli’s decision to run again in 2025 for the New Jersey governorship:
Any person who endorsed Donald Trump for president this year (as Ciattarelli did before his official campaign announcement)and attended a “Stop the Steal” rally, as Ciattarelli did in 2020, should be considered totally unfit for any position of political leadership, especially being governor of New Jersey.
Ciattarelli’s actions and comments help legitimize the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. That event was not attended by “patriots,” but by people who were intent on overturning the results of a free and fair presidential election that Joe Biden won.
Ciattarelli’s recent endorsement of Trump demonstrates what side he is on, and it’s not the Constitution’s side.
Robert Checchio, Dunellen
Women’s basketball is fine without the messages
Women’s college basketballhad a wonderful season this year, which everyone hopes will now carry over to the WNBA, the professional league. That would be fantastic.
Yet, you chose Nancy Colasurdo, a life coach, to write a Mosaic guest column (“Progress through the lens of sport”) that somehow turned the entire season into a commentary about race, transgender players and, of course, the “one major political party that tries to roll back civil rights, erase the ugly racial parts of our history and be more blatantly racist.”
I suggest you use an actual sportswriter, not a life coach, next time to write about something positive like the past season. I’m sure columnist Steve Politi would have done a great job. What Colasurdo wrote was unnecessary, and I found it biased.
Good luck to all of the college women who played this year, and to the WNBA. Basketball fans are all pulling for you.
Tom Varga, Piscataway
Editor’s note: Colasurdo is a former sportswriter, stating in the column “For most of the 1990s, I was a Trenton Times beat writer covering women’s basketball.”
Keep enlightened transgender policy
I write as a pediatric mental health care worker in strong support of New Jersey’s Transgender Student Guidance for School Districts, also known as Policy 5756.
This exemplary policy — which controversially bars school personnel from “outing” students to their parents — promotes the safety and rights of youth, and protects nonbinary and transgender students, a vulnerable and marginalized population. It is exactly the kind of policy that belongs in our schools.
To rescind it would put children at risk, both their mental health and their physical safety. The Fort Lee, Wyckoff, and Westwood school boards’ recent decision to uphold the policy after local challenges was a bright light in an often stressful news cycle, and I commend them.
Emma Schurman, Hudson Falls, N.Y.
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