Jul 3, 2015 4 min read

Editorial voices from newspapers around the United States as compiled by the Associated Press:

A lot of people are unhappy with the Supreme Court, and we understand that. Had last week’s rulings on Obamacare and same-sex marriage gone the other way, a different set of Americans would be just as unhappy.

In the matter of same-sex marriage, presidential candidates and other politicians are wrong to deny the court’s authority in making the decisions and to encourage continued denial of gay weddings. States cannot pick and choose which laws they will follow and which they will ignore.

Republican leaders are the loudest in condemning the court and vowing to reject same-sex marriages. They are on the wrong side of history. Interestingly, 61 percent of younger Republicans fully support same-sex marriage, about the same percent as Americans as a whole.

With last week’s court rulings, it is time for the country to move forward. Republicans have spent years trying to overturn the Affordable Care Act. Time and again, those efforts have been rejected in Congress. Twice now, the Supreme Court has upheld the law, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion in both rulings. How much time, work and money has been put into those failed efforts. Politicians of both parties should embrace the parts of Obamacare that are working – as many are – and strive to modify the sections that can use improvement or even total revision.

Instead of trying to move the country backward, our lawmakers and other political leaders should look to the future and how better we can move forward as a society.

The Indiana General Assembly would do well to consider a recent lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana before pursuing – once again – a state law requiring drug tests for welfare recipients.

Those who receive cash benefits through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program, as well as those enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, have been targeted for drug testing in the past. Such programs haven’t been successful.

Florida’s welfare drug-testing program was declared unconstitutional in March based on the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. In four months of testing in Florida, fewer than 3 percent of applicants tested positive for drugs. It cost more to administer the program than was saved in benefits to people who failed the drug test. A similar measure in Michigan was ruled unconstitutional by a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003.

There is no evidence to support that poor people are more likely to abuse drugs than anyone else, just as those who can afford healthy and nutritious food aren’t more likely to make good choices when it comes to diet.

Dangers are lurking everywhere on the Internet, especially for children who aren’t aware of them.

That’s why parents need to be deeply involved with what their children are doing online. Parents need to know every day what their children are doing on the web and phones, who they are communicating with and what messages they are sending to others.

If they don’t, their children might be putting themselves in danger.

Internet safety involves communication. Besides checking what their children are doing on the web, parents need to talk to them about what to watch for and the warning signs that someone is looking to take advantage of them.

Too much time on the Internet also can lead to isolation and fill young minds with the wrong kind of information. The accused Charleston, S.C., church shooter, Dylan Storm Roof, apparently spent a lot of time on white supremacist websites, soaking in the racial hatred and violent messages found there.

Certainly, there are plenty of websites containing educational information and news. The Internet can provide insights and take children visually to anywhere in the world. Parents just need to make sure it’s not taking their children into dark places where predators and hatred loom.