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

DATE: SATURDAY, October 30, 1993                   TAG: 9310300227
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA                                LENGTH: Short

VOTER-GUIDE PROHIBITION LEFT INTACT

Two family-advocacy groups banned from distributing their voting guides lost a battle Friday when a federal judge refused to lift the prohibition.

District Judge Albert Bryan rejected a request by the Family Foundation and Concerned Women for America of Virginia that the ban be lifted.

Attorneys for the two groups said late Friday that they had filed appeals with both the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Virginia Supreme Court.

Bryan said the issue should be decided in state courts instead of on the federal level.

Fairfax County Circuit Judge J. Howe Brown had imposed the prohibition Wednesday, saying the groups must register with the state as political organizations.

The groups said the orders were infringements of their First Amendment right to free speech.

Walt Barbee, president of the Family Foundation, said Friday that registering with the state could jeopardize his group's tax-exempt status.

"We're between a rock and a hard place," he said.

Lawyers for the foundation appealed for the federal judge to lift the ban, saying the election was only days away.

by CNB