Word: courtly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...anniversary of the crime. Relatives of the slain workers then journeyed to Washington for another commemoration and a White House meeting with President Bush, who described the young men as heroes. But when the families implored Bush to promise that he would support attempts to reverse a recent Supreme Court ruling widely considered to be a setback for civil rights, the President declined...
Entering the homestretch of its current term, the U.S. Supreme Court quickened its pace last week by issuing 23 decisions. In addition to its landmark judgment protecting flag burning as a form of free expression, the high bench announced a series of other important rulings in the areas of free speech and criminal law. Following past patterns, the Justices remained vigilant on First Amendment rights but continued to chip away at the constitutional safeguards of criminal defendants...
...obscenity ruling that upset anti-pornography activists, the court unanimously struck down a major portion of Congress's 1988 dial-a-porn law. The statute, which had sought to criminalize "obscene or indecent" telephone-message services, had been enacted at the urging of parents' groups that complained the racy phone communications were too easily accessible to children. But last week the court insisted on maintaining the distinction between obscenity, which may be prohibited, and indecency, which may not. Justice Byron White declared that banning indecent but not obscene telephone calls for adults went beyond what was needed to protect children...
...difficult enough to define obscenity, but indecency is entirely in the eye of the beholder." Conservative Republican Senator Jesse Helms called the maintenance of the ban on obscene messages a "major victory for our children" but otherwise decried the ruling. "How many ruined lives will it take before the court and society realize the devastation that can result from dial-a-porn?" he asked...
...court handed down two other significant First Amendment decisions. By a vote of 6 to 3, it backed the right of communities to force public rock concerts to be less noisy. Justice Anthony Kennedy said officials at New York City's Central Park could require performers to use a sound system operated by a city technician following municipal guidelines. By another 6-to-3 vote, the court threw out a $97,500 judgment won by a rape victim against the Florida Star. The small, weekly Jacksonville paper had, contrary to state law, / published the victim's name after obtaining...