ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 25, 1997 TAG: 9702250096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTONI
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Supreme Court dealt a setback to supporters of congressional term limits Monday, rejecting Arkansas' effort to put an election-ballot brand on candidates who fail to embrace the restraints.
Under a new provision of the Arkansas Constitution, elected officials whose efforts in behalf of term limits were deemed unsatisfactory would have had a ``scarlet letter'' notation next to their names on Election Day. It would have stated: ``DISREGARDED VOTER INSTRUCTION ON TERM LIMITS.''
That requirement was struck down by Arkansas' highest court. In its action Monday, the Supreme Court let that ruling stand without comment.
The Arkansas measure is duplicated in eight other states, where legal battles continue.
The ``scarlet letter'' nickname for such provisions comes from the 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne novel in which people convicted of adultery were forced to wear a scarlet ``A.''
The amendment to the Arkansas Constitution was adopted by voters in November. Backers had hoped that the nation's highest court would use that case to remove any doubts about the validity of such steps.
``We will continue to fight in the trenches,'' said Paul Jacob of U.S. Term Limits. The group expects positive results in other appeals courts, which ``will create conflicting precedents that can only be resolved by an eventual decision from the U.S. Supreme Court,'' he said.
In other matters, the court:
* Agreed to study the Clinton administration's effort to ward off new restrictions on who may join federally chartered credit unions.
* Refused to review a case from St. Louis in which a lower court ruled that the Constitution does not forbid police from letting the news media enter a home while it's being searched.
* Said it will use an Illinois case to decide whether citizen lawsuits can seek penalties against companies that miss a federally imposed deadline for reporting their use of hazardous chemicals.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB