Word: law
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...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...
...Congress used a sledgehammer when it should have used a scalpel," explained Columbia University Law Professor Vincent Blasi. "It's 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...
...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 it from a public police report. If the government has made information publicly available, wrote Justice Thurgood Marshall, those who publish it should not be punished...
...court's attitude, however, was strikingly different in last week's criminal-law rulings. In two cases decided by 5-to-4 votes, the court handed a major defeat to defendants charged under federal drug and racketeering laws -- and to their attorneys. The high bench ruled that prosecutors may confiscate the assets that such a person intends to use for his legal defense if the property was gained through criminal activity. Under the rulings, the assets may even be temporarily frozen before the defendant is tried or convicted. Such seizures do not violate the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, wrote...