Word: civil
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...choice made by informed adults who evaluate the potential health risks of smoking and then decide, none the less, to engage in a risky behavior. Yet, these claims are near impossible to accept, especially in light of the fact that the tobacco industry so wants to avoid civil trials that, in the last year alone, it has agreed to pay $250 billion dollars to treat smoking related illness over the next 25 years...
...heart of a rape case that just made the Supreme Court docket. During its 1999-2000 session, the Court will decide the constitutionality of provisions in the Violence Against Women Act that allow women who are attacked or raped to sue their attackers in Federal civil court. The case under consideration was brought by a Virginia Tech student who charges that two members of the football team raped her during her freshman year. So why would a case like this fall under the aegis of interstate commerce? Because, explains TIME senior reporter Alain Sanders, according to the 1994 act, when...
...therefore that the case against them is invalid. The court?s deliberations will be watched carefully by lawmakers, because if the commerce clause is rejected as a viable basis for anti-discrimination law, it could affect not only the Violence Against Women Act but also countless other civil rights laws. ?Every major civil rights law on the federal books was enacted under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution,? says Sanders. ?Our anti-discrimination laws are not based on liberty or equality, but on commerce.? The first civil rights laws were enacted under the assumption that discrimination in housing...
...facing a intensive dissection, says Sanders. ?This court has indicated that it?s willing to take a look at these commerce-based laws, and that it may be willing to impose some limits.? Still, no one is predicting that a ruling for the defendants would radically alter civil rights laws, and despite the Supreme Court?s history of reviewing its past decisions, it may examine the anti-discrimination laws and decide to leave them alone. ?Sometimes,? explains Sanders, ?the Justices will let certain rulings stand, if they feel that the resultant laws are deeply ingrained and fundamental to a system...
...reputation for dullness? Then take a tip from Guatemala's popular opposition leader, Alfonse Portillo. A former university professor, Portillo became a hero to voters last week after releasing campaign commercials crowing over having shot and killed two men in self-defense 17 years ago. In the civil war-torn country, that's a badge of honor. But remember, don't try this at home unless the statute of limitations has expired...