Letters to the Editor: The Supreme Court’s surprising ally on its homelessness ruling

To the editor: The Supreme Court gives officials more power to restrict homeless tents on public property. That’s not the big news — here’s the big news. Gov. Gavin Newsom applauded this ruling as supporting “common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities.”

Newsom agreed with the six conservative judges and disagreed with the three liberal judges. I’m giving Newsom one profile in courage for that!

David Waldowski, Laguna Woods

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To the editor: The Supreme Court recently declared that states may punish homeless people for sleeping in the streets. I wonder if they realize the irony in this decision arriving in the year of the 100th anniversary of Anatole France’s death. France is famous for his immortalized statement on the inequality of established law that disproportionately favors the wealthy: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”

It calls to mind another famous quote, this one from Winston Churchill: “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” You’d think we’d learn.

Mike Barrett, Ashburn, Va.