Letters to the Editor | March 15, 2026
Inquirer readers on the legality of the Iran War and the Trump administration’s efforts to secure a list of Jewish students at the University of Pennsylvania.
The list
The federal government wants the University of Pennsylvania to disclose the names of faculty and students belonging to Jewish groups on campus, even though the head of that government has a Penn degree. The university has rightfully declined. Good for Penn, which has not always treated Jews so carefully. My father, a Philadelphia native, graduated from Penn in 1930 but could not go to medical school there — or anywhere — because he was Jewish. So, in 1932, he went to Berlin. Not the best idea, but he had not yet connected to the internet and was clueless about the rapidly growing antisemitic situation in Germany. With six other American and Canadian Jewish men, refuseniks all, he studied in Berlin for two years before moving to Switzerland to finish. Daddy wrote letters home discussing friends, classes, and politics. Those letters are now in the Holocaust Museum in Washington. As a Penn alum myself, I am delighted that the university has stood its ground on this crucial topic.
Susie Perloff, Philadelphia
Checks and balances
In a recent letter, Fred Hearn acknowledges that Donald Trump’s “excursion” in Iran is likely unconstitutional. He then proceeds to go on at some length to explain why that’s not important. In fact, this letter is the exact reason why it is critically important. Alexander Hamilton famously noted that the Constitution grants sole authority to declare war to Congress and that presidents should “preserve peace till war is declared.” The Constitution doesn’t have a codicil to Article 1 that says: unless the president has a hunch that another country has “missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.” The minute that the people of this nation start to accept presidents deciding which parts of the Constitution they can simply ignore, we no longer live in a representative republic with three coequal branches of government. Once these basic constitutional checks and balances are eroded, they are gone for good. As Benjamin Franklin observed, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” The letter writer unintentionally proves Franklin’s point.
Kenneth Rayca, Cinnaminson
From Jan. 6 to Gracie Mansion
If Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi — the Bucks County men who the police said went to Gracie Mansion last weekend as counterprotesters armed with explosive devices — are convicted, I hope they spend the rest of their pathetic lives in jail.
It is interesting to note what they were demonstrating against: the “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” protest. That rally was organized by far-right activist Jake Lang, whom federal prosecutors once wanted to send to prison, too: Lang was charged with attacking police officers during the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. However, while awaiting trial, he was among the roughly 1,600 people who were pardoned by Donald Trump on his first day back in office. Lang is now running for U.S. Senate in Florida.
The second term of President Donald J. Trump: the “gift” that keeps on giving.
Rosemary McDonough, Narberth
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