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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993                   TAG: 9305180068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

JUSTICES TO DECIDE JUROR CHALLENGES BASED ON SEX

The Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether excluding potential jurors because of their sex is just as unlawful as disqualifying them based on their race.

The court voted to use an Alabama paternity lawsuit to determine whether the Constitution bars such gender-based jury selection.

The Alabama case involves a man who says his rights were violated when an all-female jury decided he fathered a boy born four years ago.

In the Alabama case, James E. Bowman contends he should have been allowed to challenge the exclusion of men from the jury that decided he was the father of Phillip Rhett Bowman Bible, born May 16, 1989.

The Supreme Court's ban on excluding jurors for racial reasons began in 1986.

Lawyers for Alabama said Bowman had not shown men are a group entitled to protection from discrimination in jury selection.

In other action Monday, the high court left in place a ruling that ended the Rensselaer, Ind., school system's practice of allowing representatives of Gideons International to distribute Bibles to fifth-graders.

The justices, without comment, rejected arguments by school officials who claimed the practice didn't violate the constitutionally required separation of church and state.

by CNB