TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/043090/0430111.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5KB | 126 lines

                                                                                LAW, Page 85

A Victory for Integration


The court rules on civil rights, privacy and labor relations


    Following a pattern of bruising defeats, civil rights
advocates have become increasingly distrustful of the Bush
Administration and the Supreme Court. But last week, topping
a series of important decisions, the high court surprised some
of its toughest critics by giving a major boost to racial
integration. By a 5-4 vote, the court ruled that a federal
judge can order school officials to raise taxes to pay for
desegregation remedies. Furthermore, said the court, the judge
can instruct officials to ignore state laws limiting the amount
of school taxes.

    The case arose in Kansas City following a long-running
battle over the public schools. The school system, once
segregated by law, is now overwhelmingly black because of white
flight to the suburbs. Federal District Judge Russell Clark
adopted a sweeping "magnet-school" plan proposed by the school
board, designed to lure white students back. When the school
district was unable to pay the costs, Clark unilaterally
doubled the local property tax.

    While the Supreme Court unanimously found that Clark should
have ordered the local officials to raise taxes rather than
doing so himself, the court split bitterly on the question of
whether federal judges may intervene in matters of taxation.
Writing for the majority, Justice Byron White said that to deny
judges that right "would fail to take account of the
obligations of local governments . . . to fulfill the
requirements that the Constitution imposes on them." But Justice
Anthony Kennedy, writing for the dissent, acidly observed,
"Today's casual embrace of taxation imposed by the unelected,
life-tenured federal judiciary disregards fundamental precepts
for the democratic control of public institutions." Like many
liberals, Colleen O'Connor of the American Civil Liberties
Union hailed the decision. Said she: "It means states and
cities can't plead poverty to impede legal school
desegregation."

    The Kansas City case was one of the more sweeping opinions
handed down by the court during a busy week. Three of the other
decisions, concerning possession of child pornography, the use
of drugs in religious ceremonies, and warrantless arrests,
involved the court's evolving body of privacy law. In addition,
the high bench issued a major decision on labor relations. The
rulings:

    CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

    While X-rated videos have become popular among many
Americans, public tolerance for sexual materials rarely extends
to the viewing of child pornography. The latter is a much more
furtive activity. Until last week, however, it was unclear
whether the Constitution permitted a state to outlaw at-home
possession of child pornography. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme
Court answered that question by upholding a tough Ohio law that
makes personal possession of child pornography a crime. Writing
for the majority, Justice White said that Ohio legitimately
sought to "destroy a market for the exploitative use of
children." The case, which arose when Clyde Osborne, 66, was
prosecuted for possessing sexually explicit photographs of
young males, brought forth a stern dissent from Justice William
Brennan. "Mr. Osborne's pictures may be distasteful, but the
Constitution guarantees both his right to possess them
privately and his right to avoid punishment under an overbroad
law."

    RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES

    In a blow to Indian traditions, the court ruled 6-3 that
there is no constitutional right to take the hallucinogenic
drug peyote as a religious practice. Justice Antonin Scalia,
writing for the majority, said that the First Amendment freedom
of religion did not allow individuals to break the law: "We
have never held that an individual's religious beliefs excuse
him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting
conduct that the state is free to regulate." Native American
groups were quick to protest the ruling, saying that use of
peyote in religious ceremonies predated the Constitution.

    PRIVACY RIGHTS

    An overnight guest in a private home enjoys the same privacy
rights as the homeowner, the court ruled 7-2. The decision
struck down the murder conviction of a Minnesota man who was
unlawfully arrested without a warrant in the home where he was
staying. Justice White wrote for the majority: " Society
recognizes that a house guest has a legitimate expectation of
privacy in his host's home."

    LABOR RELATIONS

    In a decision that cut across its traditional ideological
lines, the court held in a 5-4 decision that the National Labor
Relations Board does not have to assume that workers hired as
strikebreakers are opposed to union representation. That makes
it easier for a union to prove it has majority support. Justice
Thurgood Marshall wrote the opinion, joined by Chief Justice
William Rehnquist and Justices Brennan, White and Stevens.
"Replacements may in some circumstances desire union
representation despite their willingness to cross the picket
line," wrote Marshall. The likely impact: employers who hire
replacements for striking workers will find it more difficult
to oust their union.


By Andrea Sachs. Reported by Jerome Cramer/Washington.