American Notes CALIFORNIA

Though 33% of Los Angeles County is Latino and 13% is black, only non-Hispanic white males have ever been elected to its board of supervisors. That 115-year monopoly may end soon.

Federal Judge David V. Kenyon ruled last week that, in a 1981 redistricting plan, the five-member board had deliberately diluted the voting power of the county's 3 million Hispanic residents to protect their own incumbencies. Such gerrymandering, Kenyon declared, violated both the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment. As a remedy, the plaintiffs, who include Hispanic voters and the U.S. Justice Department, will seek the creation of a predominantly Hispanic district and an expansion of the board to seven or possibly nine members. Said Mark Rosenbaum, a lawyer for the plaintiffs: "Now the club is open to everyone."