Word: courtly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Right to Die. For the first time, the court will delve into the murky questions surrounding the hopelessly sick when they consider the case of Nancy Cruzan, a comatose patient in a Missouri hospital. The high bench is being asked to decide whether there is a constitutional right of privacy broad enough to permit her parents to request the withdrawal of feeding tubes so that she can die with dignity...
Race Discrimination. The court's conservative turn was underscored by last term's civil rights and affirmative-action rulings, which made it more difficult both to prove discrimination and to obtain preferential treatment. This week the Justices will explore how broad is the power of federal courts to remedy discrimination. Taking up a volatile dispute from Yonkers, N.Y., the court will determine if a judge may compel city council members to vote for a housing-desegregation plan. Later, in a case from Kansas City, it will decide whether a judge may order tax hikes to finance a school-desegregation plan...
Religion. The wall separating church from state will be tested in a case from Omaha that also touches on freedom of speech. The court will review the constitutionality of the federal Equal Access Act, which opens up public schools to student religious groups when any "noncurriculum-related" student group is allowed to meet on school grounds...
Obscenity. This week the court will review a Dallas ordinance that imposes strict licensing and zoning requirements on sexually oriented businesses. Later this term an Ohio case will ask whether there is a First Amendment right to possess lewd photographs of children. In last term's dial-a-porn and flag- burning cases, the Justices maintained a tolerant free-speech stance; court watchers are waiting to see what change may occur...
...court's conservative cast is already affecting the kinds of disputes that are brought before it. Observes University of Michigan law professor Yale Kamisar: "The Warren Court took cases where Government won ((in lower courts)). This court seems to be taking cases where Government lost below. It is putting liberal judges back in line." Civil rights and civil liberties groups have taken note. Ronald Ellis of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund admits that, in order not "to tempt the fates," his organization has refrained from appealing cases to the high court and is considering filing more suits...