Word: law
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...grass. But even the Administration's most determined gangbuster, Attorney General John Mitchell, cannot accept the anomaly whereby a second conviction for selling marijuana carries four times the potential maximum penalty as manslaughter or some types of sabotage. Nor can Mitchell's legal mind easily tolerate a law that threatens the same punishment to a casual user of marijuana as it does to a wholesale pot peddler. After some initial hesitation, the Justice Department is attempting to make the statutes more rational...
Under its new leadership, the Assembly voted to strip itself of some of its already minute powers. It approved a government decision to postpone parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for last fall, for at least two more years. Following party instructions, it also approved a law empowering it to replace its members summarily, without voter approval...
...behalf of all the people of the U.S.," a militant housewife named Carol Yannacone last week filed a federal court suit against five major manufacturers of DDT. Charging that the pesticide has gravely damaged the nation's natural resources, she claims that the companies have violated both antitrust laws and the citizenry's constitutional rights. Mrs. Yannacone, a Long Island conservationist, proposes a remarkable remedy. She seeks not only an injunction against further advertising of DDT without a warning but also the payment of $30 billion in reparations to local, state and federal governments. Whatever its fate...
...past summer alone, a federal judge delayed Walt Disney Productions' ski-resort scheme in California's Mineral King Valley until conservation groups can have their say in court. A six-lane highway planned to run along the Hudson River was stopped when conservationists cited an obscure law requiring congressional approval of any project involving a dike on an interstate navigable waterway...
Even so, formidable problems remain. For one, existing local laws that protect the environment are often poorly drafted and administered-making it especially important, as Chicago Lawyer Joseph Karaganis puts it, "to light a fire under public law-enforcement officials." Beyond that, conservationists' suits tend to be underfinanced, a handicap in fighting both large industries and the many small ones that contribute to regional air and water pollution. In addition, a court injunction against potential as well as present polluters still requires proof that irreparable damage is likely, a difficult task when it comes to such highly technical puzzles...