Letters to the Editor | June 23, 2023

It is unsurprising that the discipline of Philadelphia police officers for their Facebook posts was overturned. It is surprising that any disciplinary actions for social media posts deemed contrary to the department’s directive on social media use survived. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the removal of a probationary employee who told a coworker, “If they go for him again, I hope they get him,” after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. A divided court found that the comment touched on a matter of public concern and wasn’t shown to interfere with the effective functioning of the workplace, thereby being protected by the First Amendment (Rankin v. McPherson). A later court decision would have upheld that removal. The new standard is that the First Amendment does not protect public employees whose speech is made pursuant to their official duties, i.e., not engaged in as a private citizen (Garcetti v. Ceballos). While the Facebook posts at issue seemed to run the gamut from stupid to vile, they were expressions of private citizens and protected by the First Amendment. However, on-duty expression of such tripe is now grounds for discipline under current case law.

Stewart Speck, Ardmore

In the excellent story about Chester A. Arthur School being named one of the top 10 schools in the world, its location at 20th and Catharine was described as “Southwest Center City.” Huh? Catharine Street has been, and I believe still is, an east-west street in South Philadelphia whose name and existence date to the late 1700s. I understand that the geographic definition of Center City has been creeping south for the past 20 to 30 years but to Catharine? Ninth and Catharine, for instance, is in the midst of the Italian Market. Broad and Catharine is, without question, a busy South Philadelphia intersection. Six blocks to the west, real estate name-changers have yanked Catharine north into Center City. Bring Catharine back into its old neighborhood, please.

Murray Dubin, Philadelphia. The writer spent 34 years as a reporter, editor, and national correspondent at The Inquirer.

Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has some shocking news for the tens of thousands of people who voted for both him and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro: They are opposites on enforcing the law. Fitzpatrick recently issued a statement suggesting equivalence between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the handling of classified documents. If Biden is not also criminally charged, he suggests there will be some sort of “violation” of “basic precepts,” or just as damning, a “perception” of unequal treatment. Fitzpatrick willfully ignores the indictment’s overwhelming evidence of lengthy and repeated obstruction and lying by Trump. He fails to defend his former FBI colleagues against Trump’s scurrilous attacks (and don’t forget he voted against impeaching Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection). Shapiro gives the former president no such deference. He has successfully litigated against Trump’s “campaign of lies” about the 2020 election and demanded that Trump be held accountable for the insurrection. So, dear 1st Congressional District voters who split your ticket, expecting two reasonable centrists with a solid law enforcement background: On the congressional side, you got snookered.

Henry Scott Wallace, Doylestown. The writer was the 2018 Democratic nominee for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District

Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.