Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 2, 1993 TAG: 9306020072
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In a case from Broward County, Fla., the justices voted 6-3 that Congress did not "draw a fine metaphysical distinction between a gun's role in a drug offense as a weapon and its role in an item of barter" in setting mandatory sentences in federal drug cases.
However, Justice Antonin Scalia - who usually sides with prosecutors in criminal cases - argued that the court had misconstrued the use of the word "use."
"To speak of `using a firearm' is to speak of using it for its distinctive purpose, i.e., as a weapon," wrote Scalia. He was joined in dissent by Justices John Paul Stevens and David Souter.
The court also:
Declined to stop daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. The justices let stand a lower court ruling upholding an Illinois law requiring public schools to start the day with the Pledge of Allegiance. An atheist parent had charged reciting the phrase "one nation under God," inserted in the pledge in 1954, violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
Ruled unanimously that a criminal conviction must be overturned if a judge gives a jury an unconstitutional definition of "beyond a reasonable doubt."
Said Vanna White can go ahead with a lawsuit against a South Korean electronics firm that has aired advertisements showing a robot resembling her.
Ruled that professional advisers to employee pension plans may not be sued for monetary damages for giving bad advice.
by CNB