Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 15, 1991 TAG: 9104150296
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The justices said they will review a ruling that struck down such a Tennessee law, similar to those in most states.
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the challenged state law violates free-speech rights.
In other action, the court:
Agreed to decide whether prison inmates who claim guards' use of excessive force amounted to cruel and unusual punishment must prove their injuries were "significant."
The justices said they will review a ruling that threw out a Louisiana prison inmate's lawsuit against guards who physically mistreated him. An appeals court dismissed the suit because he suffered only some loosened teeth and a split lip.
Agreed to decide whether Mississippi is unlawfully operating a racially segregated system of state universities.
The court said it will study Bush administration arguments that the state never has overcome the days when whites and blacks were required by law to attend different schools.
The administration is urging the justices to overturn a federal appeals court ruling that said Mississippi has ended unlawful segregation of its system of higher education.
Said it will consider making cities easier targets for federal lawsuits when municipal workers are killed or injured on the job.
The court agreed to hear an appeal by the widow of a Texas man who suffocated while working in a sewer line.
> Turned away an appeal by a teen-ager from Washington state sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole for a murder he committed when 13 years old.
The justices, without comment or any recorded dissenting vote, rejected arguments that Barry Massey's life sentence amounts to unlawfully cruel and unusual punishment.
> Let stand some federal regulations on guns, rejecting a challenge by the National Rifle Association and other firearms groups.
The justices, without comment, left intact rulings that the regulations imposed on gun owners by the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are within its legal authority.
> Let stand rulings that civil rights lawyer William Kuntsler and two other attorneys should be punished for filing a lawsuit against North Carolina officials "for publicity" and other improper motives.
The justices, without comment, refused to hear arguments that sanctions against the three men were imposed unfairly.
The Tennessee polling-place law, in effect since 1972, was challenged in 1987 by Rebecca Freeman, campaign treasurer for a candidate to the city council for Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County.
A state trial judge upheld the law, but the state Supreme Court reversed that ruling last Oct. 1.
Noting that only political speech and political activity were banned, the state court said the law "is content-based because it regulates a specific subject matter . . . and a certain category of speakers, campaign workers."
The state court said Tennessee officials have a compelling interest in banning solicitation of voters and distribution of campaign literature "within the polling place itself."
But it added, "The state has not shown a compelling interest in the 100-foot radius."
In the appeal acted on today, state Attorney General Charles Burson said 40 other states restrict campaigning within designated boundaries, and that 6 states establish the boundary at 100 feet or more away from polling places.
"The ability of states to regulate speech activities around the polling place on election day is a serious question of national importance," Burson argued. He said states must be given such regulatory power "to ensure orderly, fair and honest elections."
Lawyers for Freeman urged the justices to reject the state's appeal. They said the law is invalid because it selectively bans political speech from certain areas while allowing all other forms of speech.
"A person who stands 90 feet from the entrance of a polling place exhorting people `Vote Republican' is subject to criminal prosecution," they said, "while another person standing the same distance from the entrance chanting `Hare Krishna' or a person in that location soliciting charitable donations is not."
by CNB