{"slug": "letters-california-should-support-hawaiis-citizens-united-challenge", "title": "Letters: California should support Hawaii’s Citizens United challenge", "summary": "California Gov. Gavin Newsom should support Hawaii's legal challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which allowed unlimited corporate political spending and undermined democratic accountability. The letter argues that Hawaii's effort questions whether unlimited campaign spending serves the public interest or fair representation, as elections should be decided by voters rather than corporate bank accounts.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...**Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.**\n\n#### State should support Citizens United foil\n\nRe: “[New California law aims to keep Trump from meddling in midterm elections](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/05/29/new-california-law-aims-to-keep-trump-from-meddling-in-midterm-elections/)” (May 29).\n\nSpeaking of election interference, Gov. Newsom should get behind Hawaii’s [challenge](https://apnews.com/article/corporate-campaign-money-citizens-united-hawaii-71a28bc7e8f6e0279b31e999f222519a) to Citizens United v. FEC. It is a necessary step toward restoring democratic accountability. The 2010 Supreme Court decision allowed corporations and outside groups to spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns, which increased the influence of corporate interests in elections. As a result, many American voices got drowned out.\n\nBy challenging Citizens United, Hawaii is questioning whether unlimited political spending serves the public interest or undermines fair representation. Elections should be decided by voters, not by the size of a corporate bank account. While free speech is a fundamental right, equating unlimited campaign spending with free speech weakened the public trust in government.\n\nHawaii’s effort reflects a reality that campaign finance laws need to protect democracy and ensure that every American citizen’s voice carries meaningful weight.\n\n**Akeem Mostamandy**\n\n*San Jose*\n\n#### Californians must get out and vote this fall\n\nAt 2 p.m. on June 3, the California Secretary of State’s [website](https://dp.electionresults.sos.ca.gov/returns/maps/voter-turnout) reported voter turnout at that point to be 22.4%. I heard on KQED today that the turnout for this primary election was around a whopping, amazing, astounding 40% … 40%?\n\nIt made me sad to hear that 60% of us chose not to participate in this very important civic duty. It almost seemed like a message from the divine intelligence of the universe when the solution to a cryptogram I’d been struggling with for a couple of days finally revealed itself a little later. It was a quote from Plato: “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”\n\nVoting matters, now more than ever. These people run our state and our country. Come on, people. Educate yourselves, and in November, get out and vote.\n\n**Rosalie Arntzen**\n\n*Sunnyvale*\n\n#### AI’s role in spirituality is to help, not decide\n\nArtificial Intelligence is rapidly entering fields once thought to be uniquely human, including spirituality. This development raises concerns. Can a machine teach wisdom? Can software replace conscience?\n\nThe answer is no. AI cannot replace the human conscience. However, it can help people explore questions of meaning, ethics, compassion and self-reflection. Used responsibly, AI can make spiritual ideas more accessible by providing guidance, answering questions and introducing practices such as meditation to people who might never visit a spiritual center.\n\nThe danger lies not in AI itself, but in allowing technology to become an authority rather than a tool. Spiritual growth ultimately depends on personal experience, introspection and moral responsibility.\n\nAs AI becomes more capable, perhaps its highest purpose in spirituality will not be to tell us what to believe but to help us listen more carefully to our own conscience.\n\n**Gopi Reddy**\n\n*Sunnyvale*\n\n#### Trump falls far short of military fitness standards\n\nHow ironic that strict [body composition standards](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/no-heavyweights-allowed-troops-must-meet-fitness-criteria-attend-white-rcna347606) and fitness were listed for any members of the military wanting to attend the UFC event to be held at the White House. Their waist-to-height ratio must be less than 0.55. This requirement applies to all military attendees, but it is not required of the president himself.\n\nHas anyone noticed his waistline? He can’t even button his suit because of his huge belly. The man is absolutely pear-shaped. He’s also dropped in height. He’s no longer 6’3″. Watching him walk alongside his daughter-in-law Lara Trump or his wife, Melania, he no longer has the height advantage.\n\nApparently, fitness and waist-to-height ratio don’t apply to him. And his doctors continue to insist he’s in good health. What hypocrisy.\n\n**Lynda Martinez**\n\n*San Jose*\n\n#### No more funds for deportation regime\n\nLast summer, under Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill Act,” DHS received [$190 billion](https://www.cato.org/blog/heres-how-administration-plans-spend-largest-immigration-enforcement-funding-surge-history), ICE received [$74 billion](https://www.citizen.org/news/75-billion-for-ice-cuts-for-citizens-how-the-big-ugly-law-betrays-americans/) and CBP [nearly $65 billion](https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/big-budget-act-creates-deportation-industrial-complex). This finding will cover operations, including the purchase of additional detention centers, huge industrial warehouses not conducive to human habitation. Moreover, the funds are not being used to maintain the present detention centers where crowded human beings are given moldy bread and denied necessary medication.\n\nDHS, CBP and ICE must not be given additional funds in the upcoming vote on the Senate Reconciliation bill.\n\n**Rosemary Everett**\n\n*Campbell*\n\n#### How to save democracy from new robber barons\n\nThe two greatest threats to America are the Donald Trump regime and the new robber barons of big business.\n\nWe must stop the Trump power grabs by ending voter suppression (the SAVE Act) and undoing gerrymandering (which politicians love because it guarantees them re-election). All politicians must sign a pledge to vote against and to repeal voter suppression and gerrymandering. Failure to sign the pledge will label them as an “enemy of democracy.”\n\nBig business uses its power and resources to squeeze ever greater profits from the American people. We must use our antitrust laws to break up self-serving monopolies and make them act in the public interest. Most businesses are honest and want to serve their buying public, and they should welcome the return to honest competition.\n\nReconstituting the Consumer Financial Protection Board will be a major step toward helping the American buying public.\n\n**John Cormode**\n\n*Mountain View*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/letters-california-should-support-hawaiis-citizens-united-challenge", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/05/letters-california-support-hawaii-citizens-united-lawsuit/", "published_at": "2026-06-05 23:00:39+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-05 23:57:00.991399+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Hawaii", "Citizens United v. 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