May 6, 2016 4 min read

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

President Barack Obama has done his job by picking an eminently qualified judge to serve on the Supreme Court.

Senate Republicans, who like to tout themselves as strict interpreters of the Constitution, should stop their charade and set a confirmation hearing.

Obama nominated Merrick B. Garland, a consensus-building judge who has served admirably on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for nearly two decades. He is a centrist, a former prosecutor who sides often with law enforcement but also has a progressive view on matters of environmental protection and freedom of the press. And he has been supported by Republicans before, including U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch who once said there was “no question” Garland could be confirmed to the highest court in the land.

Yet, neither Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell nor Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is willing to budge.

Twice and by considerable margins, American voters selected Obama as their president. By putting forth a strong and qualified person for the Supreme Court, he is continuing to do his job. The Senate’s failure to act is unconscionable.

If pandering to narrow interests could be transferred into energy, the Pennsylvania Senate majority would be a powerhouse.

After Gov. Tom Wolf recently and correctly vetoed a Fiscal Code bill that improperly rolled back environmental laws and policy regarding power production and gas-drilling regulations, undaunted representatives of the fossil fuel industries in the Legislature introduced the rollbacks as separate legislation. The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee recently passed two such bills.

One would more than double the amount of time the Legislature would have to review the Clean Power Plan being developed by the Wolf administration.

The plan is required by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Although the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily has stayed nationwide implementation pending its review of a lower-court decision, the Wolf administration wisely continued developing a plan because it is in Pennsylvania’s best interest.

Under the bill, lawmakers would give themselves an additional 80 legislative days, beyond the 100 calendar days they already have, to review the plan before its submission. Those 80 legislative days could stretch into more than half a year, an unnecessary delay that would preclude submission of a plan before 2018.

The bill also includes a bizarre and probably unconstitutional provision that would allow either legislative chamber, rather than the full General Assembly, to effectively veto the plan.

There is no need to delay the Clean Power Plan review. Lawmakers should desist.

Sometimes you just have to ask, What the heck were we thinking?

That question pops immediately to mind when you consider the state of Indiana imposes a lifetime ban on drug offenders receiving food stamps.

So, just what were our state legislators thinking when they drafted the law?

Maybe it was to punish drug offenders beyond their prison sentences. Maybe it was to limit food stamp programs to save money. Perhaps it was considered a way of ensuring drug offenders have less money to spend on drugs, since they would have to spend some on food.

Whatever the reasoning, the policy is clearly flawed. Drug offenders, after they’ve done their time, should be eligible for the same sorts of public assistance as others. In fact, having access to food stamps might keep them from dealing drugs to get money to buy food.

Indiana is one of just nine states that still deny food stamps to drug offenders. One of the others, Georgia, is poised to end its ban soon. Public officials in another, Nebraska, are debating that state’s policy. That leaves only Indiana, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina and West Virginia with the law intact.

Indiana needs to follow the lead of the rest of the nation and quit punishing people for what they might do wrong again – in this case, use drugs.