Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 23, 1995 TAG: 9505230104
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Knight-Ridder/Tribune and The Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Most Republicans favor term limits. Most Democrats do not. Term limit activists say they will now concentrate their efforts on punishing politicians who oppose them at the polls.
The court's 5-4 ruling invalidated term limit laws passed by Arkansas and 22 other states. It said the only permissible way to limit terms is a constitutional amendment, requiring support of two-thirds of House and Senate members and ratification by three-fourths of the states.
``In a strange way, it may be a blessing in disguise,'' said Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., a term limits supporter. ``It puts everything right there between the cross hairs.''
Justice John Paul Stevens was joined in his majority opinion by David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer. Siding with Justice Clarence Thomas in dissent were William Rehnquist, Sandra Day O'Connor and Antonin Scalia.
The court also ruled that Congress cannot impose term limits for its own members by merely enacting a statute.
When a term limits amendment earlier this year became the only piece of Republicans' ``Contract With America'' not passed by the House, more than 80 percent of the Republicans had voted in favor; more than 80 percent of the Democrats opposed.
The Senate has not voted on term limits this year, but Majority Leader Bob Dole has pledged to schedule a vote. It will fail, all sides agree.
``Today's ruling makes it more important for people who favor term limits to increase the size of our new Republican majority next November,'' House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas said hours after the court ruled. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt had no formal response to the ruling.
Scott Rasmussen, who chairs the Term Limits Leadership Council, said, ``Five justices overturned the votes of 25 million Americans, and that's discouraging.''
The issue was pivotal in driving former Speaker of the House Tom Foley, D-Wash., and former House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jack Brooks, D-Texas, from office last fall. Paul Jacob, executive director of U.S. Term Limits, said, ``There will clearly be a lot more emphasis on voter education efforts like those done in the Foley and Brooks campaigns.''
Michael Malbin, a scholar of the term limits movement at the State University of New York at Albany, agreed. ``I think the odds for Democrats retaking Congress next time have just become longer because Democrats in the 23 states that had term limits will be more threatened than they were yesterday.''
Some believe the term limits fever has cooled, though. John Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California, said, ``Certainly, some of the passion was quenched by the election of the Republican Congress, because some of the people supporting term limits were doing it as a reaction to 40 years of a Democratic Congress.''
Nevertheless, Pitney and other analysts agreed, the drive to limit terms for members of Congress is certain to continue. Both houses of Congress are likely to vote on proposed constitutional amendments to limit terms before the 1996 election.
by CNB