ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 18, 1996 TAG: 9606180091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press note: above
The Supreme Court opened the way Monday for possible reinstatement of a Utah law that would make it much more difficult to obtain late-term abortions.
The court also entered the political cross fire over gun control.
In the abortion case, the court ruled that a federal appeals court went too far when it invalidated all provisions of a restrictive Utah abortion law.
By a 5-4 vote, the justices set aside the lower court's ruling that called the entire Utah law an undue burden on women's privacy.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had thrown out the whole law after finding most of it unconstitutional.
Utah Attorney General Jan Graham had urged the justices to reinstate at least part of the law, and that could be the effect of Monday's ruling.
The disputed provision would allow abortions after a woman's 20th week of pregnancy only to save her life, prevent grave medical harm or prevent the birth of a child with ``grave defects.''
Monday's decision appeared to give Utah officials the option - pending further review by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - of enforcing that part of the law.
The ruling, however, was narrow, based on procedure - whether a provision of the law can be separated and independently enforced after another part has been struck down.
``Today's disturbing ruling invites state legislatures to enact sweeping restrictions because it directs federal courts to do everything possible to salvage such laws,'' said Simon Heller of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, an abortion-rights advocacy group.
``We remain hopeful that when this case returns to the federal appeals court, the panel will find that the ban on later abortions is unconstitutional,'' he said.
As for gun control, the court agreed to decide whether Congress, through the Brady gun law, can require local law enforcement officials to check the backgrounds of prospective gun buyers.
The court said it will hear the appeals of sheriffs in Montana and Arizona who say the federal law unconstitutionally requires state officials to provide enforcement.
A federal appeals court upheld the law in the Montana and Arizona cases. But in March, another appeals court ruled that the law violates state sovereignty.
In other action, the court:
* Agreed to decide whether states may confine ``sexually violent predators'' who have served their prison sentences but who suffer from a ``mental abnormality or personality disorder'' that make them dangerous.
* Ordered a federal appeals court to restudy a Cincinnati charter amendment that denies discrimination protection to homosexuals. The ruling was in light of the high court's decision last month striking down a similar Colorado measure, giving gay-rights advocates a major victory.
* Refused to shield Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic from being sued in U.S. courts by women who were raped and tortured in the former Yugoslavia.
* Said it will decide whether police who stop cars for routine traffic violations can order all passengers to get out.
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