
DATE: Tuesday, February 25, 1997            TAG: 9702250262

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   66 lines

SUPREME COURT DEALS A SETBACK TO LIMITING CONGRESSIONAL TERMS IT REJECTS ARKANSAS' BID TO "BRAND" CANDIDATES WHO DON'T BACK THE IDEA.

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.

The nation's highest court dealt a devastating blow to term-limit backers in 1995 when it ruled that states cannot limit service in Congress without amending the Constitution. Twenty-three states had taken such steps.

The court's 1995 decision also said Congress cannot impose term limits for its own members by merely enacting a law.

The Arkansas measure called on the state's legislators and members of Congress to do all within their power to win ratification of a proposed amendment limiting service to 12 years in the U.S. Senate and six in the House.

The House rejected such a proposed amendment Feb. 13, and the Senate is unlikely to resurrect it.

The Arkansas measure doesn't say whether the ``scarlet letter'' notation should appear in only one election or each time a person seeks office in the future.

Similar propositions have won approval in Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota.

Court challenges are being waged in Idaho, Maine, Missouri and Nebraska - and future challenges in the four other states are likely. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

IN OTHER CASES

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.

(Story, Page D1)

Refused to review a case from St. Louis in which a court said the

Constitution does not forbid police from letting the news media

enter a home during a search.

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. KEYWORDS: U.S. SUPREME COURT RULING