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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 17, 1990                   TAG: 9003172335
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

HIGH COURT INDICATES IT MAY ACT QUICKLY ON FLAG-BURNING

In a brief order, the justices told lawyers for seven people who have attacked the constitutionality of the new federal flag-protection law to respond quickly to two Bush administration appeals defending that law.

Those attorneys were given 10 days, instead of the usual 30, to file replies - an indication that the court expects to decide promptly whether to review the new law's constitutionality, and whether to do so during the current term or to wait until next fall.

Once the court has the replies, due March 26, it is then expected to make up its mind on a schedule for handling the dispute.

Congress, in passing the new law last fall to try to overturn a Supreme Court decision giving full constitutional protection to flag-burning as a form of political protest, urged the court to review the new statute promptly. The Bush administration wants a final decision before the court's summer recess.

The challengers' lawyers have opposed putting the test cases on a fast track, arguing that the court should not plan to take up the case until the first day of its next term, October 1. The issue, they argued, is not a national emergency and is "too fundamental" to be handled as speedily as the Department of Justice had asked.