Democrats didn’t gratuitously forfeit the filibuster

I read with amusement columnist Charles Krauthammer’s analysis of the GOP’s invoking of the nuclear option to allow confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court (“Karma, Precedent and the Nuclear Option,” April 8). It is laughable that Mr. Krauthammer was able to write about this subject without mentioning the Republicans’ unprecedented refusal to give Merrick Garland’s nomination a hearing and a vote.

Mr. Krauthammer further amuses by stating that President Barack Obama tried to “pack three liberal judges onto the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.” Mr. Obama apparently rankled Republicans by fulfilling his constitutional responsibility to nominate judges to fill existing vacancies.

Mr. Krauthammer also complains about liberal judges and their freewheeling, freestyle constitutional interpretation, conveniently forgetting about the Roberts court’s precedentshattering decisions in which they, among other things, upended the long-accepted meaning of the Second Amendment; overturned decades of rulings and laws to allow unlimited campaign spending by corporations and unions; and gutted the core of the Voting Rights Act.

The Democrats did not gratuitously forfeit the filibuster; they just forced Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom Mr. Krauthammer fails to mention, to obliterate more Senate norms than anyone in history, to end a system wherein the nominees of a Democratic president require 60 votes (if they’re allowed to come to a vote) and the nominees of a Republican president need only a simple majority. The Democrats effectively lost the Supreme Court in the last election, but at least now they forced Mr. McConnell to level the playing field for future Democratic presidents. HAROLD BLOOMFIELD

Monroeville presidency is totally and completely ridiculous. THOMAS McNAMARA Plum

Use of helmets in hockey began around 1934 after Ace Bailey nearly died from a head injury. Helmets were unpopular with players, fans and the media from 1935 to 1968. The death of Bill Masterton in January 1968 changed attitudes, and helmet use gradually rose so that 70 percent of players wore them in 1979, when the NHL mandated them for all new players.

The face shield/visor was first used by Ken Clay in 1964 after he lost an eye to a stick injury. By 2015, 89 percent of current players wore them. The NHL mandated them for all new players as of 2013. This brings us to the present day and the use (or nonuse) of helmet cages. As a fan of both college and professional hockey, I am surprised and disappointed that the NHL does not require players to protect their lower faces with a cage or other device.

All college players and players under 18 are required to wear them. Sidney Crosby’s recent loss of teeth could have been prevented by the use of a lower face shield. Will it take a horrendous injury, such as the ones in 1964 and 1968, for hockey leaders and the NHL to mandate use of full face protection? The players’ claim of lack of vision with a cage is just an excuse not to wear one. Goalies seem to see fine while wearing a face mask. Let’s prevent more hockey face injuries. KEITH APELGREN, M.D.

Upper St. Clair

I totally disagree with the April 11 letter “Donald Zoller Jr. Deserves a Chance Outside of Prison.” This man, no matter the age he was when he murdered in cold blood three innocent people who were there for him, does not deserve his freedom. Letter writer Anthony A. Fuchs may think this way because it was not his family that was brutally murdered. And he may say that he would forgive this man after all this time if it were his family.

But, thank God, he will never know. It wasn’t his family! It was someone else’s family, and they lost parents and a grandparent in such a horrific way and had to live their lives knowing how their loved ones died.

So, Mr. Fuchs, if you can put your heart in this criminal’s life, think about the victims’ family with the same compassion. SHERYL A. COCCARO

Mount Washington