Court to Review Rights Ruling

There is a tragic irony in the fact that the Supreme Court has moved to reopen a review of Runyon vs. McCrary during the same month which marks the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (Part I, April 26). This action by the nation’s highest court can only serve to resurrect the racist and anachronistic rhetoric which was a benchmark of opposition to the civil rights movement during the 1960s.

Similarly ironic is the fact that the headlines which herald this vigilante-like action on the part of the court’s conservative members are juxtaposed to those which chronicle the ongoing circus which has replaced the Justice Department .

It is clear that the current Administration’s constitutional legacy to the American people will be a society again beset by the intolerance and racial divisiveness it has struggled for generations to overcome. Were it not so tragic, one would have to laugh at the fact that this misbegotten legacy will have been left to us by those who purport themselves to be members of the party of Abraham Lincoln.

RICHARD NEWTON MEYER

Los Angeles