Taking office Costume Party begins short term Inside, p. 3.
The University Daily
KANSAN
CLOUDY
High, 40. Low, 11.
Details on p.2
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 94, No.114 (USPS 650-640)
Tuesday morning, March 6, 1984
Court upholds accommodation of religions
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — A highly divided Supreme Court, holding that the Constitution mandates "accommodation" of religion, ruled today that communities can display nativity scenes to celebrate the Christmas holidays.
The 5-4 ruling declares that the Constitution does not require "complete separation of church and state" but calls for "accommodation, not merely tolerance, of all relations and forbids hostility toward any."
Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote for the majority in the ruling on a case from Pawtucket, R.J.
case from Pawtucket, A.1
The justices reversed a lower court ruling that banned inclusion of a nativity scene in a city Christmas display in downtown Pawtucket. The display was challenged by a taxpayers' group and the American Civil
YESTERDAY'S DECISION that the scene did not advance religion is the first time the nation's highest court has directly ruled on public displays of
The Constitution does not require 'complete separation of church and state.'
— Warren Burger Chief Justice
nativty scenes, although the question has cropped up nearly every vruleidite in recent years.
yielded in December 1967.
Burt Neuborne, legal director or the ACLU, called the decision "part of an obvious movement by the court towards a more sympathetic view of government involvement in religion."
But, he said, it "is not an open invitation to government support of overtly religious events. This is not a green light for prayer in schools."
The ruling came on the same day the Senate began debate on a constitution amendment to permit voluntary prayer in schools, a
practice the supreme order for government. In the nativity case, the federal government and Pawtucket city fathers argued that Christmas is a "secular folk festival" and that the scene was merely a holiday symbol.
BURGER AGREED, saying the display was intended to "celebrate the holiday and to denominate the origins of that holiday."
holiday and to deprive the original owner of the property. He said the court refused to be involved in "mechanically invalidating all governmental conduct or statutes that confer benefits or give special recognition to religion in general or to one faith."
Officials in Pawtucket said they were convinced the ruling meant the religious heritage of the nation will be safeguarded.
Rigious haggards of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, said the decision is divisive "because it provides official sanction for the religious beliefs of one faith over that of other citizens."
Justice William Brennan, in a 32-page dissent, said the Pawtucket display "amounts to an impermissible governmental endorsement of a particular faith."
U. S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor speaks in Hoch Auditorium. O'Connor last night told an audience of more than 2,000 people that the Supreme Court had a "uniquely reactive" role because it usually responded to appeals and rarely initiated action on cases.
Justice says court's role is only reactive
O'Connor cites cases with Kansas origins, explains court docket
By ROB KARWATH Staff Reporter
In the third speech of the 1983-84 J. A. Vickers Sr. Memorial Lecture Series, O'Connor said the court played a "uniquely reactive" role by responding to cases and not initiating action in them.
The nine U.S. Supreme Court justices react to the controversial issues that come before the court and do not actively search them out. Justices have told an auditor who marked in with Hoch Auditorium.
"WHEN CONGRESS OR a state legislature lights a fire, we are often called to respond to it." she said. "Justice moves slowly and we usually don't see it until it's too late. But we usually laugh a while once we are there."
She spent about 40 minutes telling more than 2,000 people about the court's docket. Members of the audience interrupted the speech once with sporadic applause.
In the afternoon, she also spoke at the KU School of Law. Last night O'Connor highlighted her speech with references to cases from Kansas that had reached the court.
O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the court, said the court often spent years resolving the problems in the cases it hears because the issues are so important.
She said that no important cases have recently come from Kansas, which reflected well on the state.
"Kansas has not ignited many blazes in the last few years," she said. "Frankly, I take that as a sign that Kansas is doing quite a few things right."
BUT O'CONNOR SAID that one of the most important decisions in court history was a Kansas case — Brown v. board of Education of Topeka. It was that landmark civil rights case that in 1954 made segregation in schools illegal throughout the U.S.
O'Connor called that case a catalyst and said it was responsible for a "quantum jump" in the
See SPEECH, p. 5, col. 1
Gemayel discards Israeli accord
By United Press International
There was no comment from the government or Christian militias, but an hour later Beirut was still silent.
Opposition Muslim militias jointly stated unilateral "total adherence" at 11 p.m. local time to an undecided 24-hour cease-fire that held the fighting to sporadic machine gun bursts and mortar fire yesterday, Beirut state radio said.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Amin Gemayel, giving in to Syrian and rebel demands, scrapped the May 17 peace accord with Israel yesterday and agreed to new Lebanese reconciliation talks in Switzerland
THE CHRISTIAN-LED government's dramatic decision to abolish the accord coincided with twin Israeli bombing raids on suspected Palestinian guerrilla bases in the mountains and more Lebanese, American and French bloodshed in Beirut.
Syrian President Hafez Assad, who masterminded the abrogation, telephoned Gemayel to renew his country's "readiness to cooperate with Lebanon for the salvation of the country"
"This is a victory for the people of Lebanon
and Syria." Beirut state radio quoted Assad as saying.
The agreement, negotiated by Secretary of State George Shultz, had ended the state of war between Lebanon and Israel and set up conditions for a withdrawal of Syrian, Israeli and Palestinian forces from Lebanon.
The United States, meanwhile, moved an aircraft carrier and most of its escorts away from Lebanon, leaving nine combat vessels behind, the smallest U.S. presence in Lebanese waters since November.
Pentagon officials in Washington said the carrier and its escorts were en route to the North Atlantic to participate in NATO exercises that would put the ships off Norway for about two weeks.
EARLIER YESTERDAY, artillery and mortar shells slammed into east Eiret killing at least one person and wounding seven others in spillover fighting from the "Green Line," which divides Christian east from Muslim west Beirut.
Assad and his rebel Muslim allies had demanded the accord be scrapped as a condition for a cease-fire in Beirut and a resumption of national reconciliation talks aimed at broadening the Muslim role in Gemavel's minority Christian government.
Scattered fight between Lebanon's wary factions also shook the Shouf mountain village of Souk el Gharb, a key army outpost guarding the approach to Gemayel's presidential palace.
In a long-awaited meeting, Gemayel and Cabinet ministers agreed to cancel the May 17 accord, reopen national reconciliation talks in Berlin and form a new government of national unity.
Beirut radio said caretaker Prime Minister Chefik Wazzan had complied with Gemayel's request "to suspend the resignation of his Cabinet."
GEMAYEL'S RIGHT-WING Christian Phalange Party allies bitterly opposed the move and Christian officials vowed to resist what they saw as "further Syrian enroachment" in Lebanon.
In Washington, the State Department said that the United States "regrets" the Lebanese decision.
But, it added, "The United States doesn't intend to abandon Lebanon . . . The United States will continue to be deeply concerned and involved in efforts to resolve the Arab-Iraeli problem and other critical issues in the Middle East."
Syria's task is to ensure Lebanese stability
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanon's decision to scrap the May 17 troop withdrawal accord with Israel transfers to Syria the task of creating a stable Lebanon — a job that both the United States and Israel failed to do.
ANALYSIS
States and Israel taught to
Militarily humiliated in the 1982 Israeli
By United Press International
invasion of Lebanon, Syria was virtually ignored in Secretary of State George Shultz's negotiations that led to the signing of the May 17 accord.
Within a week of its signing, Syrian President Hafez Assad declared that there was no question of discussing anything but its cancellation.
ABOUT 40,000 SYRIAI troops still occupied north and east Lebanon, and mounting internal
Syria was in a good position to fight.
A month after 61 of the 91 remaining members of Lebanon's parliament voted on June 15 to approve the accord, Syria had fostered a Lebanese opposition group, the National Salvation Front, in the territory it occupied. The front was sworn to impose cancellation of the accord on Gemayel.
After the first Syrian-backed rebels' military advance against Gamayel in September, Prime Minister Chefik Wazzan pronounced the accord frozen on grounds that Israel had not coordinated with the government when it pulled back to a more secure front line in Lebanon.
political disillusion with the narrowly based government of President Amin Gemayel made fertile ground for spoiling action.
But Israel said yesterday that the cancellation of the agreement meant it could handle its own security arrangements in south Lebanon, where 800,000 Lebanese live under occupation by some 10,000 Israeli soldiers.
The National Salvation Front's second push in February — which resulted in the collapse of the Lebanese Army and the resignation of the Lebanese Cabinet — brought Gemayel to Damascus and left Syria calling the shots.
WHILE REJECTING U.S. military intervention, Syria has not made the mistake of ignoring the political influence of the United States. The Lebanese government is still
The May 17 accord originally provided for the withdrawal of the Israelis, but in return Lebanon had to give political, military and economic concessions that Syria rejected.
talking of making accommodation for Israeli fears for the security of its northern border
Syria apparently believes that Israel's mounting losses to local guerrillas will force Israel to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
Once Gemayel took the road to Damascus, Assad gave him a personal reprieve from the opposition's demands for his resignation.
Syria's policy since a similar intervention in 1976 has been to ensure that none of Lebanon's factions be defeated entirely — but that all should be submissive to its will.
Assad now has to make the cease-fire he promised Gemayel work, and ensure the success of a second national reconciliation conference in Switzerland next week, where Israel and the United States failed.
Lawrence woman to be associate district judge
Staff Reporter
By SHARON BODIN
Jean Shepherd, a Lawrence attorney who was appointed yesterday by Gov. John Carlin as a Douglas County associate district judge, said she would have to make some changes before donning her judge's robe in June.
Shepherd, who will be the first woman associate district judge in Douglas County, said that the toughest adjustment would be the transition from appealing to the bench, to sitting behind it.
"I will have to stop being an advocate and become a person who listens and attempts to become as fair as possible and doesn't espouse a viewpoint," she said.
snepherd is an attorney for the Barber, Emerson, Six, Springer & Zinn law firm in Lawrence.
LAWRENCE. The cases she is now handling will be gradually transferred to the other attorneys in the firm.
BEFORE TAKING her position in June, Shepherd said, she plans to meet with Mike Elwell. the judge she will be replacing.
Ellen judged, "I intend to work very hard," she said. "I'll meet with the present judge to discuss his duties on a day-to-day basis.
Shepherd graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelor of arts degree in English in 1968. She then moved to Kansas City, Kan., and taught for five years at Washington High School.
In 1977 she earned a law degree at KU and has worked at her present firm since Jan. 1, 1981.
Shepherd was one of three finalists for the judge position. A committee formed in February
The six other local attorneys considered by the committee were: Douglas County District Attorney Jerry Harper; State Rep. John Solbach, D-Dawrence; John Chappell, John Hooge, Jim Salyer and Craig Stancifle, a former Douglas County district attorney.
"IT TAKES TIME before a person becomes a good judge." Shepherd said.
Oformer Boundary Company
Hooge and Salyer were the two other finalists
Low enrollment predictions not reflected by 1984 figures
"At this point, I am just enjoying the honor."
Before she takes the bench in June, Shepherd said, she must also become familiar with the code of judicial conduct for judges. Attorneys have a code but the one for judges is different.
By JENNY BARKER Staff Reporter
At this point, I am just c.e., joying.
She will be one of four women judges in Kansas. Women hold two of the 140 district and associate district positions and one woman, Kay McFarland, is a judge on the Kansas Supreme Court.
In early March of 1974, former KU Chancellor Archie Dykes was confronted with a bleak prediction that the student population would plummet to 12,000 students by this year.
A prediction had surfaced then that smaller high school graduating classes would force the University of Kansas enrollment of 19,591 down dramatically by 1984.
BUT THE POSSIBILITIES then seemed quite feasible.
Administrators took the prediction seriously and hustled to find ways to make the University of Kansas more attractive to high school graduates and to other potential students.
guidance makes
Like so many predictions made about 1984,
that one hasn't come true. This semester's
enrollment is 22,910.
Kenneth Anderson, who was then a professor of education and the executive director of the
Anderson said he had suggested finding non-traditional students — students not straight out of high school; revising teaching techniques to make the University more attractive; and improving the advising procedure to keep students here for four years.
Master Planning Commission, recalled yesterday that he had recommended at the time several alternatives to make the University more appealing.
Dykes said then that the University needed additional student recreation facilities and needed to become more flexible in its course offerings to attract students.
Dykes told KU officials that enrollment would drop because the number of graduating high school seniors would be reduced by one-third in 10 years.
Gary Thompson, director of the KU student records educational service, said yesterday that KU officials had been worried about
See ENROLL, p. 5, col. 1
2