THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 24, 1995 TAG: 9501240283
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to study a challenge to the way Virginia Republicans picked Oliver North as the party's candidate for the U.S. Senate last year.
The appeal accuses the state GOP, among other things, of imposing an illegal poll tax by requiring all delegates to the party's nominating convention last June to pay a fee.
Three University of Virginia law students are urging the justices to rule that the fee amounted to a poll tax outlawed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Their appeal said the three students - Fortis Morse, Kenneth Bartholomew and Kimberly Enderson - wanted to participate in the nominating convention but were deterred from attending by the fee.
The appeal also contended that, under a separate section of the voting rights law, imposition of the fee should have been submitted for Justice Department approval.
A three-judge federal court in Charlottesville ruled that such federal pre-clearance applies only to a political party's conduct of primary elections, not nominating conventions.
And the three-judge court said private citizens don't have the legal standing to sue over an allegedly illegal tax on voters.
In the appeal acted on Monday, lawyers for the law students said the three-judge court's ruling ``represents a dramatic departure from well-settled law about the scope'' of the voting rights law ``and the right of private parties to enforce'' it.
Lawyers for the Republican Party of Virginia urged the justices to reject the appeal, deriding the poll-tax allegation.
Asked for its views, the Clinton administration said the three-judge court's ruling was wrong and should be reviewed.
KEYWORDS: U.S SUPREME COURT APPEAL OLIVER NORTH POLL TAX by CNB