NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, October 17, 1995
7A
Anti-abortion activists' appeal is turned away
Supreme Court rejects argument posed by pickets
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court handed anti-abortion activists yet another defeat yesterday, rejecting a free-speech appeal by California pickets arrested for parading too near an abortion doctor's home.
The court, acting without comment, turned away arguments that a San Jose, Calif., ordinance used against 16 anti-abortion demonstrators unlawfully interfered with their freedom of expression.
The ordinance imposes a 300-foot buffer zone in demonstrations that target private residences.
Although the action was not a decision and therefore set no precedent, it extended abortion opponents' recent high court losing streak.
Earlier this month, the court rejected a sweeping challenge to federal limits on abortion-clinic protests. The justices let stand rulings in a Virginia case that said the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act does not infringe on anyone's freedom of expression or religion.
The court had rejected a similar
challenge to the FACE law in June.
In the last year, the court also turned away appeals by anti-abortion activists who say they are wrongly being sued as racketeers in their efforts to stop women from having abortions.
A year ago today, the court cleared the way for the jailing of Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry.
The court in 1992 ruled that states cannot ban most abortions, reaffirming the constitutional right of abortion it first announced in 1973
In the abortion-protester case, the San Jose City Council banned targeted residential picketing in 1993.
That year, 13 anti-abortion pickets were arrested for peaceably walking through the San Jose neighborhood where an abortion doctor lives. Their signs made clear who the subject of their protest was.
Five days later, three additional pickets were arrested for carrying signs across the street from the doctor's home.
No trial has been held for the 16 arrested pickets.
In seeking to scuttle their prosecutions, they relied heavily on a 1988 decision in which the Supreme Court said communities may not ban pickets from marching through residential neighborhoods.
The court in that ruling said communities can ban picketing aimed specifically at someone's home if the picketing takes place solely in
front of that home.
Lawyers for the city urged the justices to reject the appeal and defended the reasonableness of the legislative choice to use a 300-foot buffer zone.
In other action yesterday, the court:
Let Coral Gables, Fla., impose regulations on the appearance of newspaper vending machines on the city's public sidewalks. The regulations had been challenged as free-speech violations.
Let stand a Clay County, Fla., ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages on Christmas, attacked as a violation of the required separation of church and state.
Agreed to decide in a case from Missouri whether labor unions, on behalf of their members, may sue companies that fail to give legally required notice of plant closings or mass laffoffs.
Threw out an appeal in which South Carolina argued that The Citadel should remain all-male even without a separate, state-run program for women. The action had no affect on a pending fight in a South Carolina federal court over its admissions policy.
Said it will use an Illinois case to decide whether doctors' privilege against testifying about patients in court can be extended to psychologists and other mental health workers.
Canadian leader urges white mothers to breed
Prejudicial remarks incense Quebec's women and Blacks
The Associated Press
TORONTO — Debate about racism and sexism flared in the Quebec independence campaign yesterday after a separatist leader, bemoaning Quebeckers' low birthrate, said, "We're one of the white races that has fewest children."
Federalists seeking a no vote in an Oct. 30 referendum on independence depicted Lucien Bouchard's remark as a serious gaffe that could undermine the separatists' chances.
"I can't fahom what he is implying," said Conservative Party leader Jean Charest. "It shows a leadership out of control."
Women's groups said Bouchard was consigning women to the role of baby-maker. Black leaders said he was widening a racial gap between Quebec's 6 million-strong French community and the province's non-white population of several hundred thousand.
Bouchard's remarks were equally offensive to women and people concerned about racism, said Dan Philip, president of the Black Coalition of Quebec. "On the one hand he emphasized the racial divide between some Quebecois and others. On the other, he treats Quebecois women as a vessel to supply more children."
Bouchard, leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois in the federal parliament, has taken the lead role in the separatist campaign during the past 10 days. His charismatic style has been credited with pulling the separatists into a virtual dead heat with the federalists.
He spoke about Quebec's birthrate Saturday while campaigning near Montreal at rallies intended to convert undecided female voters.
On Sunday, realizing his opponents were trying to capitalize on the remark, Bouchard said, "They're desperate."
He said his comment was made in the context of urging stronger welfare programs to strengthen and benefit families in Quebec.
"The rest — that's petty politics," he said.
has fewest children, that's really something," he said. "That suggests we haven't solved our family problems."
Quebec's birthrate has been stagnant for several years, and immigrants have accounted for virtually all the population growth in the province of 7 million people.
Bouchard has no idea of the reality of Quebec in 1995, said Labor Minister Lucienne Robillard, the federal government's top coordinator of referendum strategy.
Chantale Corriveau, a representative for a federalist women's group called Impacte, said, "Linking the
personal choice of women to bear children or not to the question of Quebec's sovereignty is to marginalize women and strip them of their personal choices."
"We're one of the white races that has fewest children."
During his speech Saturday, Bouchard asked, "Do you think it makes sense that we have so few children in Quebec?
Luclon Bouchard separatist leader in Quebec
"We're one of the white races that
Not all separa-
rat is s
appeared ready
to share
Bouchard's
concerns about
the low
birthrate. Marie-Josee Lacoste, an employee at a Montreal specialty store, reported brisk sales of prosovereignty condoms decorated with the Quebec flag and the words 'Say Yes.'
Palm readers provide security
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Federal Reserve System is using a palm reader to beef up security.
The Associated Press
It's a new high tech security device that takes a three-dimensional reading of hands as people walk into the lobby, comparing the reading with images on a database before clearing couriers for entrance.
Hand imaging devices protect Federal Reserve
It's just one of several new security steps implemented at the regional bank in the wake of recent terrorist acts in the country. Other measures include securing building perimeters and installing metal detectors.
But it's not a fortune-telling palm reader.
Federal Reserve officials are reluctant to discuss specific security concerns.
to figure out that things are kind of heating up a little bit (nationwide)," said Richard E. Vogel, a security supervisor for the Federal Reserve. "Anyone could look at the newspaper today and clearly tell that there are more acts of a terrorist nature going on within the continental U.S. now than for the past 15 years."
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist
The Federal Reserve always has had tight security. However, bombings at the World Trade Center and the Oklahoma City federal building helped spur officials to adopt stronger methods.
Rapetti, who works in Nashville, Tenn., said she fielded calls from that city's post office, federal courthouse and several high-profile organizations.
Other systems under development are facial-recognition readers, which can scan groups and pinpoint known terrorists whose photos had been recorded in the system's database.
Rapetti said government agencies were the main users of biometric systems.
more prevalent as the prices come down, Rapeti said. The cost of a system, such as the Federal Reserve Bank's, recently has dropped from about $10,000 to $2,000.
Mary Jo Rapetti, who sells biometric readers for National Guardian Security, said people panicked after the Oklahoma City bombing.
Ronald Francisco, professor of political science at the University of Kansas, said plenty of disgruntled people would view the Federal Reserve as a logical target.
"There are a lot of groups in the United States — not just militia movements, but others — who think currency control is how you control everything," Francisco said. "Therefore, if you blow it up, you are blowing up the power of the U.S. government to interfere in the economy."
Biometric systems, which provide a statistical, biological analysis of various body parts, will become
It's Time...
To Donate Again. 1995 Fall Blood Drive
October 16-19
Kansas Union
Ballroom
9:30 A.M. - 4:30 P.M.
October 20 Oliver & Templin
10 A.M. - 4:30 P.M.
A small portion of you will help save a LIFE!