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

DATE: TUESDAY, October 17, 1995                   TAG: 9510170078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press|
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

HIGH COURT TELLS CITADEL TO WAIT

The Supreme Court on Monday put The Citadel's effort to remain all-male back in the hands of a judge in Charleston, S.C., at least until the high court hears a similar case involving Virginia Military Institute.

The justices, without comment, refused to hear South Carolina's bid to preserve the state military college's men-only policy.

Previously, a federal appeals court ruled that The Citadel can remain all-male if it comes up with a separate but comparable program for women.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide that very issue in a case involving VMI, the only other all-male, state-supported military school in the nation. The Clinton administration has asked the justices to reject VMI's recently created military-style program for women at Mary Baldwin College.

Administration lawyers opposed South Carolina's appeal as premature because The Citadel case is still before a federal court in Charleston.

U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck has set a hearing next month on whether a state-funded leadership program at all-female Converse College in Spartanburg is an adequate alternative to admitting women to The Citadel.

Earlier this month, the judge allowed 17-year-old Nancy Mellette to take Shannon Faulkner's place in the 21/2-year legal battle to open The Citadel to women. Faulkner dropped out of The Citadel in August after less than a week as a cadet at the Charleston school.

In other action Monday, the court:

Let Coral Gables, Fla., impose stringent regulations on the appearance of newspaper vending machines on the city's public sidewalks. The regulations had been challenged as free-speech violations.

Let stand a Clay County, Fla., ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages on Christmas, attacked as a violation of the required separation of church and state.

Agreed to decide in a case from Missouri whether labor unions, in behalf of their members, may sue companies that fail to give the legally required notice of plant closings or mass layoffs.

Said it will use an Illinois case to decide whether doctors' privilege against testifying about patients in court can be extended to psychologists and other mental health workers.

by CNB