Readers React: The Supreme Court’s terrible gerrymandering decision takes power away from the people

To the editor: It isn’t a stretch to suppose that the Supreme Court’s gerrymandering decision, predictably by the five right-wing members, will be as well-received by future generations as the Dred Scott decision is today.

What a monstrous evil these five men have inflicted on our body politic.

Sara R. Nichols, Los Angeles

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To the editor: In 1953, Bertolt Brecht bitterly joked about the undemocratic policies of the East German government, “Wouldn’t it be easier for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?” Partisan redistricting — gerrymandering — does just that. In the 2018 election, Wisconsin Democrats got 65% of the votes for their state Legislature but only 45% of the seats — and the U.S. Supreme Court has just ruled that’s A-OK.

What historian Leonard Schapiro said of the Russian Bolsheviks — that they were “a minority determined to rule alone” — is also true of today’s Republican Party. A Republican-dominated Supreme Court has given Republican state governments the power to rig the political process and keep themselves in power forever no matter what their states’ voters want.

Mark Gabrish Conlan, San Diego

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To the editor: The Supreme Court has given politicians license to act undemocratically. “Of all times to abandon the court’s duty to declare the law, this was not the one,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan. It will now be open season on gerrymandering. This means instead of voters choosing their leaders, the leaders choose their voters. Five radical conservatives voted “no decision” on an issue at the very basis of our Constitution: democracy.

As a reader, you realize that gerrymandering is an effort by white men to maintain power. Being a white male, I feel that this ruling is an insult to fairness and the American way. It proves to me the bias of our courts and encourages me to do everything in my power to seek to rectify the situation.

Dr. Richard A. French, Pasadena

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