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Wednesday, March 29, 1978
University Daily Kansan
High court favors judges in sterilization suit ruling
WASHINGTON (AP)—The Supreme Court, despite angry disagreement by three members, said yesterday that judges were almost immune from lawsuits by women who they have ordered sterilized, even when such orders are mistakes.
Voting 5-3 in a major decision on judicial immunity, the court said an Indiana judge who approved a mother's request that her unsuspecting daughter be extradited was not subject to damages.
Judges cannot be sued for damages unless they act in a clear absence of all jurisdiction, the court said, adhering to a judicial immunity doctrine made in an 1871 Supreme Court decision.
JUDGES' MISTAKES—even malicious masks—are shielded by immunity, that doctrine says. Judges who face difficult circumstances be influenced by fear of personal consequences.
Yesterday's decision reversed a federal
appeals court's ruling that Harold D. Stump, a DeKalb County, Ind, circuit court judge, could be sued for his sterilization order.
The Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that Stump's order was not a judicial act because of his failure to comply with elementary principles of constitutional law.
beyond legal challenges.
Justices Potter Stewart, Thurgood Marshall and Lewis F. Powell J, dissented, calling Stump's order lawless conduct.
An opinion by Justice Byron R. White said Stump had the authority to issue the order so that any possible misuse of authority was beyond legal challenge.
calling MIKHIL BAKW what Judge Stump did on July 19, 1971 was behind the pale of any that could sensibly be called a judicial act." Stewart said in an opinion for the three.
Taking the rarely used privilege of reading his dissent from the bench, Stewart
said, "A judge is not free, like a loose cannon, to inflict indiscriminate damage whenever he announces that he is acting in his judicial capacity."
Linda Kay and Leo Sparkman of Kendallville, Ind.,ought damages in 1975 for the tubal ligation performed on Mrs. Sparkman in 1971.
Mrs. Sparkman was 15 when her mother decided she had to undergo the operation.
Mrs. Sparkman's mother, Ora Spitler McFarlin, presented a legal document to Judge Stump seeking permission for the sterilization.
Judge Stump approved the mother's request without adding a hearing or interment.
Mrs. Sparkman sued, charging she had been denied her constitutional rights to die process, that her privacy had been invaded and that her subjects subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
Officials critical of urban policy
NEW YORK (AP)—President Jimmy Carter's newly proposed urban policy was designed to send fresh federal aid to central cities in need. However, in at least 12 metropolitan areas, some officials are concerned that the poor who live in communities that surround the cities have been overlooked.
City, state and county officials around the country were busy yesterday analyzing the
long-awaited and complex $4 a billion urban aid package unveiled Monday.
One of the biggest questions appeared to be whether references in the plan to distressed urban areas and distressed cities includedcountdowns to a deadline for affected urban problems.
DEPARTMENT OF Housing and Urban Development officials said the plan was meant to include all urban areas in distress, whether inside central cities or not. A HUD
Revival of use-value bill suppressed by Senate vote
spokesman emphasized that parts of the plan, such as a $200-million incentive program intended to enlist states to form and implement urban policies, as well as existing urban aid programs, would ultimately help all distressed urban areas.
However, some local officials said the language of the plan was unclear.
An ongoing study by the Brookings Institution shows that in at least 10 metropolitan areas, the surrounding suburbs and unincorporated towns have more poverty, worse education and poorer housing than their neighboring central
They are Omaha; Dallas; Houston;
Phoenix; Norfolk, Va.; Salt Lake City;
San Diego; Seattle; Fort Lauderdale;
and Greensboro. N.C.
BEAUFORT CASTLE, Lebanon (AP)—Yasir Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said today that the N forces in South Lebanon keep the peace.
The National Association of Counties reacted angrily to the Carter plan on similar grounds, saying that it ignored 60 percent of the county's voters who live outside the central cities.
However, some radical guerrillas, under Arafat's nominal control, vowed to fight any UN attempt to impose a cease-fire in their two-week battle with the Israelia inside
Peaceful effort pledged
A U.N. spokesman in New York, reading a statement from Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, "Arafat informed me, when I met him, an Erskine acceptance of my call for a general cease-fire."
Waldheim issued his appeal Monday after the Security Council made a similar appeal March 18.
MHRC OWVER, ARAFAT did not say specifically that his guerrillas would observe the cease-fire declared by Israel March 21.
Nonetheless, only scattered shooting incidents were reported yesterday, after heavy clashes and artillery exchanges during the previous night.
In other Middle East developments yesterday;
- Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sent a personal letter to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, urging him to resume direct peace negotiations. The letter was given to U.S. Ambassador Samuel Lewis in Jerusalem for forwarding to Cairn.
- Egyptian Foreign Ministry officials said in Cairo that a new Israeli proposal for some self-determination for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip was unacceptable because it did not include Palestinians living in the Arab countries.
- The Arab League met in Cairo and drafted an Arab solidarity plan for future dealings with Israel. Sources said the league, which met without the five intraglobal Islamic leaders, did well try to lift their support for the plan, which was not immediately disclosed.
- An Israeli poll indicated that Begin's
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approval rating had slipped almost 20
percentage points since December to 96.4
percentage points in the past five years.
the newspaper Haaretz, did not reflect Begin's visit to Washington or the invasion of Lebanon.
TOPEKA (AP)—The Kansas Senate rejected yesterday an effort by supporters to resurrect a bill implementing use-value appraisal of farmland.
LEO KOTTKE
Appearing with Special Guest John Hammond
The motion to put the bill on the agenda was defeated, 19-21, far short of the two-thirds vote needed.
Friday, March31 8:00 p.m.
Hoch Auditorium
University of Kansas
Reserved Seats $6.50 & 5.50
It marked a sharp defeat for rural lawmakers who have supported the concept and a诉权 for urban legislators fearful that the lawmakers own property taxes searing.
Available at SUA Box office,Kief's, Caper's Corner & Peaches in Kansas City Mother Earth, Topeka
An SUA & Schon Production in cooperation with KY102
in other action, a Senate committee approved four bills that would revamp the state system of corrections but delayed efforts to expand community corrections in Kansas.
Sen. Edward Reilly, committee chairman, scheduled another meeting for this morning to take up a House-passed bill that would establish an expanded program of the committee or out of time yesterday halfway through deliberations on the bill.
The Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee passed bills involving pre-trial diversion programs, the prison industries and persons on their own recognizance.
Under this bill, the state would establish a system of paying local communities to set up programs for handling nonviolent felons rather than sending them to state institutions and not providing work-release centers, parole and probation programs or local prisons.
As passed by the House,the bill envisions
TONIGHT: ALBERT GERKEN, University Carilioneur, presents a recital at 7. The KU SAILING CLUB meets at 7 in the Big Eight Room of the Kansas Union. The KU GO CLUB meets at 7 in the Union's Pine Room. EDWARD MEYEN, chairman of the special education department, will speak to children at 7:30 in 444 Haworth Hall. The OREAD STRING TRIO performs at 8 in Swainborth Reuct Hall in Murphy Hall.
Events
KANSAN
On Campus
TOMORROW: the UNCLASSIFIED WOENN'S ADVISORY UNIT meets at noon in the Meadowlark Room of the Union to hear Frances Horowitz, professor of human biology at Answorth, associate professor of law, discuss evaluation and grievance procedures.
THE COMPUTER SCIENCE Colloquium begins at 4 p.m. in the Union's Council Room. SUA BRIDGE starts at 6:30 p.m. in Parlors A and B of the Union. A OFRIAN-CAN STUDIES films "Central Africa" and a FRIAN-CAN STUDIES film "Botswana," start at 7 p.m. in Strong Hall auditorium. SIGMA DELTA CHI, the Society of Professional Journalists, presents a Freedom of Information panel discussion at 7:30 p.m. in the Union's Jayhawk Room. LAWRENCE STONE of the University lectures "The Social History of the English Country House, 1500-1800," at 8 p.m. in Woodruff Auditorium in the Union.
THE KANSAS UNIVERSITY BALLOONING ASSOCIATION
Come Hanger Fly With Us In The Oread Room In The Union At 8:15 p.m.
THURSDAY, MARCH 30
POSITION OPENINGS
K. U. Residence Halls and Scholarship Halls 1978-1979
RESIDENT ASSISTANTS
Must be Junior, Senior or Graduate
Student for 78-79 academic year
ASSISTANT HALL DIRECTORS
Must be Graduate Student or Fifth-year status for 1978-1979 academic year
SCHOLARSHIP HALL DIRECTORS Must be Graduate Student or Fifth-year status for 1978-1979 academic year
All applicants should evidence above average academic achievement, prior residential group living experience and availability for the entire 1978-1979 academic year (August-May).
Applications and job descriptions available now in Dean of Women's Office (220 Strong Hall) or in Dean of Men's Office (228 Strong Hall).
Application Deadline March 31,1978
The University of Kansas is an equal opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Qualified Men and Women of all races and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.