University Daily Kansan, October 30, 1984
NATION AND WORLD
Page 12
Court to hear Mitchell case
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court yesterday granted a hearing to former Attorney General John Mitchell, who claims he has immunized children by approving wiretaps in 1982 because he was acting to protect national security.
Mitchell, who was the nation's top law enforcement officer under President Nixon, was appealing a ruling that could force him to stand trial over the amount of monetary damages owed for electronic surveillance without a warrant of an anti-Vietnam War activist.
The Mitchell wiretapping case is the latest in a series to come to the Supreme Court for action. Earlier this month, the justices rejected an appeal by the Jewish Defense League and Rabbi Meir Kahane, an American who is a member of the Israeli parliament, of f' ruling throwing out their suit against Mitchell for wiretanning the group.
THE CASE ACCEPTED yesterday arose from Mitchell's approval of wiretapping in connection with an FBI investigation of an alleged plot to destroy utility tunnels beneath federal buildings in Washington,
D. C., in protest of the Vietnam War. The FBI later heard that members of the same group had hatched a plan to kidnap Henry Kissinger, who was then Nixon's national security adviser.
Shortly afterward, Mitchell approved a tap on the telephone of William Davidon, a Haverford College professor. Before the wiretap was discontinued on Jan. 6, 1971, three conversations between Davidon and a friend, Keith Forsyth, were recorded.
Forsyth, now an electrical engineering student in Philadelphia, sued in 1972, claiming the wiretaps violated his constitutional rights.
THE CASE BOUNCED around in federal courts for years, finally reaching the Supreme Court for the first time in 1981. The court reviewed two rulings that Mitchell was not completely immune from damages because he was acting as an admin- officer on the prosecution, the court said. a 1978 Supreme Court ruling would have shielded him legally.
federal appeals court ruled he was not completely shielded from the consequences of his approval of wiretapping, even for national security reasons.
A new round of hearings in lower courts resulted in Mitchell's claims for both complete and qualified immunity being rejected. Again, a
THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT,
acting for Mitchell, appealed to
the Supreme Court, arguing that "when
the president's designee performs
national security functions . . here,
perhaps more than with any other
function, hesitation resulting from
fear of personal liability carries
grave risks to the nation as a whole
and can least be tolerated."
In other action, the court:
*Refused to review an appeal by West Virginia Gov. Jay Rockefeller of a ruling that could mean he and two other state officials will face trial on charges state workers were laid off for political reasons.
- Agreed to decide whether states can force insurance companies to provide more health care coverage than is required by federal law.
- Will rule whether the government can be held liable for the death of a serviceman who was murdered by a fellow soldier while they were off duty and off their Texas base.
Feminists unveil commercials
By United Press International
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A panel of prominent feminists yesterday unveiled six radio commercials featuring Hollywood celebrities Paul Newman, Carrie Fisher, Joanne Woodward and Marlo Thomas urging women to defeat President Reagan.
The commercials, part of a national campaign to capitalize on the so-called "gender gap" in the final week of the presidential campaign, do not mention Reagan's challenger, Walter Mondale.
Instead, the aim is to encourage women to vote against Reagan on Nov. 6 by attacking his approach to issues and the arms race.
"If anybody can upset him, women can," is the final line of each commercial.
THE MINUTE-LONG SPOTS are financed by the Woman's Trust Fund, a political action committee run by Eleanor Smear, former head of the National Organization for Women. They are in aiming in major states, said California state Senate employee Kathleen Hamilton.
Hamilton, Sacramento coordinator for the Gender Gap Project, said that $100,000 was raised nationwide under Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo.
says: "If re-elected, Reagan wants to strip you of your right to have a safe and legal abortion for any reason, including rape and incest, even though 80 percent of all women are for safe and legal abortions.
In one commercial dealing with abortion, actress Fisher, who appeared in the movie "Star Wars,"
"YOU SEE, FIVE Supreme Court justices who support legal abortion are over 75, so the next president is likely to appoint a new majority. Reagan's pledged to appoint justices who are against abortion — creating a new Supreme Court that will outlaw all abortions."
Woodward and Newman, in separate commercials, attack Reagan's off-the-record joke that bombing of the Soviet Union would begin in five minutes.
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