Clarence Thomas
George F. Will congratulates the Supreme Court, and particularly Justice Clarence Thomas, for allowing Alabama counties to disregard the Voting Rights Act and for possessing “the courage to let the injustice stand rather than resort to judicial overreaching” (“Thomas Resists Temptation to Overreach,” Column Right, Feb. 4).
This is yet another example of conservative claptrap masquerading as irrefutable logic. It is oxymoronic to assert that it takes “courage” to abide by an “injustice.”
Moreover, it would hardly have been “judicial overreaching” for the court to hold that the voting rights of minorities are diluted when a county curtails the historic governing power of individual county commissioners simply because the commissions are no longer all-white.
Instead of reaching a logical and correct result via strict construction, the court has needlessly restricted and contorted yet another civil rights law, thus requiring Congress to spend still more time and taxpayer money to correct the error. This court is reckless, not courageous.
JOHN J. MANIER
Los Angeles
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