Constitution

Annapolis' mayor and all but one city council member have signed a letter asking Congress to amend the Constitution to allow regulation of political contributions and spending. The letter written on Mayor Joshua Cohen's city letterhead criticizes the effect of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which has led to record spending in political contests and the explosion of so-called super-PACs, or political action committees. "We believe that these decisions promote an inordinate and corrupting power of wealth in our political system, to the detriment of ordinary citizens," the letter said.

Rep. Paul Ryan made a curious and troubling statement in his roll out as the Republican vice presidential candidate. He said "our rights come from God or nature, not from government. " As a member of this government for the last dozen years, I am certain he bases this statement on something. It is certainly not the Constitution. You know, that document that lays out how this government works. Nowhere in that document is God mentioned. It talks about the separation of church and state in the establishment of religion clause.

Use your camera to take pictures of granny and the kids, snap vacation highlights or capture a beautiful sunset, and no one will say a word. But try photographing a police officer in the performance of his official duties, and you could risk getting arrested, or worse. Though courts have ruled repeatedly that the police can't prevent people from taking pictures at crime scenes, in bus or train stations or on the streets, too many officers still act as if they never got the message.

So much to say and only 800 words to say it. So let's break the Supreme Court's Obamacare decision down between the law, politics, and the real world. • The decision : A monstrous new social program was found constitutional. A mandate the president insisted was not a tax was found to be a tax - and fully constitutional under an aggressive interpretation of congressional taxing authority. It was indeed fortuitous for President Barack Obama that Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr. read the mandate as such; the majority opinion made clear his opposition to such drastic federal intervention under the Commerce Clause.

When President Barack Obama at his inauguration swore upon his word to the "best of my ability to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," he should have included, "except when I want to ignore it" ("Reform moves ahead," June 29). When our Constitution was ratified in 1789 it was the product of years of stubborn deliberations, significant writings, precise opinions and highly charged arguments between the most brilliant minds of the time. But it was because of this interplay that our Constitution has become the most important work in political history ever written for the establishment of a free and governed people.

Dan Rodricks , whose essays I admire, is entitled to be wrong once in awhile ("DNA: Why wait for an arrest?" May 3). His willingness to subject everyone to DNA testing for use in solving future crimes is a concept very much in tune with George Orwell's classic novel, "1984. " Imagine if the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to our Constitution, were being debated in Congress today. Sadly, most Americans know that it would not pass. Alan Shecter, Baltimore

If the Supreme Court has to decide whether it is constitutional for the states or the federal government to force people to buy health insurance, why doesn't it also have to decide whether it's constitutional to force taxpayers to pay to cover the uninsured? Charles H. Webster

Interesting case going on in a federal district court in eastern district of Pennsylvania. A woman sued General Information Services, Inc., a credit reporting agency, for reporting dismissed criminal charges against her that were more than seven years old. Usually, negative information comes off after seven years. She says her rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act have been violated. The company argues that it has a first amendment right to publish the information, based on a recentU.S.

Two Baltimore County senators, unhappy with their new districts under the governor's General Assembly redistricting plan, have sued to have the map overturned, contending that it gives Baltimore City extra representation at the expense of the county. Sens. Delores Kelley and James Brochin, both Democrats, asked the Maryland Court of Appeals to invalidate the redistricting plan, which automatically took effect this year when the legislature did not move to replace Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan with one of its own. The plan is especially disadvantageous for Brochin, whose district would become heavily Republican under the plan devised by O'Malley and legislative leaders.

When a high court ruling came down this week limiting the use of DNA evidence, police in the state were investigating 20 cases based on DNA  collected after they arrested suspects charged with committing a violent crime or burglary. Now, it's unclear whether any of  those cases will lead to prosecutions. The Court of Appeals decision puts in question the constitutionality of collecting the samples before a conviction, and the state is considering whether to appeal the matter to theU.S.