Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406050031
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The court, which began the current term last October, is into its annual June sprint toward summer recess. And despite the lightest decision workload in decades, substantial cases are still pending.
Of the 84 signed decisions the term is expected to yield, 36 have yet to be announced.
Through the 1980s, the court averaged about 140 signed decisions each term. The total for any term hasn't dipped below 85 since the 1950s.
Only once since William Rehnquist became chief justice in 1986 has a court term extended into July, and court officials said they expected the current term to end in late June.
If so, these are among the cases to be decided within the next four weeks:
How should courts safeguard the free-speech rights of anti-abortion demonstrators while also protecting abortion clinic patients and employees from harassment?
The court, in a case from Melbourne, Fla., will try to clarify how far judges, and by extension local governments, may go to restrict protests outside abortion clinics. A state judge created a 300-foot protest-free zone and wouldn't even let protesters be within 36 feet of a Melbourne clinic.
President Clinton recently signed into law congressionally passed legislation seeking to limit protest activities at abortion clinics, but the court will be dealing with a local law.
Does a county violate minority voters' rights if it retains a one-member county commission system? The court's decision in a Bleckley County, Ga., case could spell out the power of federal judges under the Voting Rights Act to require communities to adopt different forms of government.
May Congress require cable television systems to carry local broadcast stations? The court must decide whether the "must carry" provision of a 1992 law violates cable operators' free-speech rights.
The court in past rulings has said cable operators have some such rights, but it never has discussed those rights with any specificity.
Did New York violate the constitutionally required separation of church and state when it created a special public school district for disabled children in a community of Hasidic Jews? The case from Kiryas Joel, N.Y., gives the court its latest chance to revisit thorny legal ground.
May the government require private property owners to set aside part of their land for environmental purposes as a condition for zoning variances? A case from Tigard, Ore., asks the court to decide whether such conditions amount to a "taking" of private property that requires compensation for the landowner.
by CNB