ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 10, 1996 TAG: 9601100145
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The Washington Post
A WOMAN WHO HAS ACCUSED the president of sexual harassment can proceed with her lawsuit against him during his term in office, federal judges ruled.
A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected President Clinton's claim that he is immune from being sued while in office, ruling that former Arkansas state employee Paula Corbin Jones can proceed with her sexual harassment lawsuit against the president.
A panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, splitting 2-1, said Clinton has no special protection against being sued for his private conduct merely because he is president.
``We start with the truism that [the Constitution] did not create a monarchy,'' said Judge Pasco Bowman, who was appointed by President Reagan, and joined by Judge C. Arlen Beam, another Reagan appointee. ``To the contrary, the president, like all other government officials, is subject to the same laws that apply to all other members of our society.''
Jones contends that then-Gov. Clinton had an Arkansas state trooper, Danny Ferguson, approach her while she was working during a 1991 convention in Little Rock and ask her to meet Clinton in an upstairs hotel room. Jones alleges that in the room Clinton, whom she had never met, made unwanted sexual overtures to her. Clinton denies that charge.
Clinton's lawyer, Robert S. Bennett, said Tuesday that he would seek a review of the decision by the full 8th Circuit and, if necessary, by the Supreme Court. The months required to file legal papers in those courts means that there is little chance it would be decided before the November election.
Tuesday's ruling goes beyond a December 1994 decision by the district court judge hearing the case, who ruled that pretrial discovery could go forward but that Clinton could not be forced to stand trial while president; the appeals court said the case could go to trial.
In a dissenting opinion, appeals court judge Donald Ross said the entire suit should be put on hold for the duration of Clinton's presidency. Ross, named to the bench by President Nixon, said that subjecting a president to lawsuits while in office would force him ``to divert his energy and attention from the rigorous demands of his office to the task of protecting himself against personal liability.''
Clinton's attorneys contend that forcing a sitting president to face trial - or even to submit to pretrial discovery proceedings - would interfere with his ability to conduct the office and encourage a barrage of frivolous suits. Any such claims should be postponed until the president leaves office, they assert.
The Justice Department filed a brief in the case supporting the president's position.
The closest the Supreme Court has come to deciding the issue is a 1982 case involving President Nixon and Pentagon whistle-blower Ernest Fitzgerald.
In that case, the court, dividing 5-4, said presidents may never be sued - in office or after leaving - for their official acts. The question raised by the Jones lawsuit is whether the protections afforded to presidents in that case extend to protecting presidents, while in office, from lawsuits that question their private actions.
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