
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 12, 1990                   TAG: 9006120395
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B/7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

HIGH COURT DECISION ON NATIONAL GUARD GETS MIXED REACTION

A Supreme Court ruling that permits the federal government to send state National Guard troops abroad for peacetime training will bar governors from playing politics with foreign policy, says a member of Congress.

Rep. G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery, D-Miss., chief sponsor of a 1986 law upheld unanimously by the court on Monday, said the decision is a relief.

"We just couldn't afford to have a few governors play politics with this issue just because they objected to the foreign policy objectives of the administration," he said.

The so-called Montgomery Amendment prohibits any governor from withholding consent to a National Guard unit's active duty outside the country because of an objection to the location, purpose or schedule of the duty.

Democratic Gov. Rudy Perpich of Minnesota challenged the law in an appeal supported by several other governors.

Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III of Minnesota said he was disappointed by the ruling. John Tunheim, a deputy in Humphrey's office who argued the case before the high court, said he was not surprised by the decision.

Tunheim said the ruling is in line with recent decisions broadening federal powers at the expense of the states.

Among those who opposed the Montgomery Amendment was Democratic Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, who made federal control over National Guard troops an issue in his unsuccessful 1988 presidential campaign.

Dukakis had opposed sending National Guard troops to train in Central America, denouncing the Reagan administration in 1988 for what he called a "failed and illegal" policy of supporting the Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

He said sending National Guard troops to the region was an attempt to intimidate Nicaragua. The Justice Department had called Dukakis' position "a dagger aimed at the heart of national defense."

By contrast, Perpich did not criticize Reagan or Bush administration foreign policy but emphasized states' rights. He said the Constitution gives states veto power over peacetime training missions for National Guard members.

The Bush administration said Perpich's challenge was illogical because the governor did not contest the federal government's power to order National Guard troops to fight a war abroad but said the federal government lacked authority to train the troops for war.

by CNB