THE UNIVERSITY DAKANSAS STATE SOCIETY TOPEKA KS
VOL.101,NO.150
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 1991
(USPS 650-640)
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Court nomination gets KU reaction
By Rochelle Olson
Kansan staff writer
The nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court pushes the court further to the right and threatens some long-standing precedents, some KU students and professors have said.
Tom Stacy, associate professor of law, said Thomas' nomination would make the court more conservative.
Retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall and retired Justice William Brennan had been the defenders of the relatively liberal Warren Scales, who preserve free freedom of speech and protection precedents. Stace said
"Iincreasingly in the past 10 years, Marshall and Brennan were dissenters," Stacy said.
The new court can be expected to be more tolerant of aid to parochial schools and of government restrictions on free speech, he said.
"Generally speaking, this court will construe civil liberties more narrowly and government prerogatives more broadly." Stacy said "We are at the very beginning of a fundamental transformation in constitutional law, and I don't need know where it will lead us."
Stacey said he expected some controversy to surround Thomas' nomination.
"He is known as an opponent of affirmative action," Stacy said. "The supreme irony is that Bush is denying race was a factor (in the nomination process), but everyone knows that it was."
"The president takes race into account in nominating an appointee, and then says that quotas are un-American."
Stacey said Thomas nomination was part of Bush's political strategy that would raise the chances in the 1992 election campaign.
Pete Rowland, associate professor of political science, said Thomas' nomination would not eliminate ideological effect on the court.
But he said, "The nomination of
Thomas institutionalized the existence of a Black seat on the court."
Rowland said there would be a dramatic difference between how Marshall and Thomas supported civil rights and liberties.
"I predict that Thomas will be confirmed, and, as the conservatives systematically dismantle affirmative action, he will write some of the most visible opinions," Rowland said.
Thomas is the third Catholic to join the current court.
"That puts Scallia, Kennedy and Thomas on the court, all of whom have a religious basis to oppose abortion," Rowland said.
He said Marshall had served as the court's conscience in many cases.
Todd Williams, Lawrence senior in political science, said Marshall was the personification of rights movement for the nation.
"A lot of the civil rights progress would not have been possible without him." Williams said.
He said that he would like to see the court more racially balanced and that Bush's nomination of an Amnesty Act on man was a step toward the right, directness.
But a court that was too conservative or liberal ideologically would hurt the nation. Williams said.
"A healthy balance provides for open discussion and reasonable debate." he said.
Steve Wetkamp, Prairie Village law student, said Marshall had been ineffective as a justice during his last few terms.
He said Marshall's legacy probably would be more important to the civil rights movement and the NAACP than the Supreme Court.
He said the appointment of Thomas made questions about Justice David Souter, appointed Bush last summer, less important.
"The more fact that Bush has another appointee on the court means that Roe vs. Wade will be denied the least restricted," Weikamp said.
Nominee may oppose abortion
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in 1987 praised an essay in which a conservative scholar denounced the landmark high court decision legalizing abortion.
Thomas' comments, made in a speech to the Heritage Foundation, were distributed yesterday by an abortion rights group.
The criticism from the National Abortion Rights Action League came a day after President Bush announced he would nominate Thomas, a conservative federal appeals-court judge, to the court vacancy created by Justice Thurgood Marshall's retirement.
The group called on the Senate to reject Thomas' nomination unless he public declared his support for the Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision.
The league distributed copies of a 1987 speech in which Thomas praised as a splendid example of applying natural law an essay in which Lewis Lehrman attacked the Roe vs. Wade decision as conflicting with the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
As potential opponents searched for material to use against him, Thomas visited the White House yesterday and spent about an hour in the office of legislative affairs, discussing opportunities for his confirmation hearings.
The administration decided to recruit Kenneth Duberstein, a former White House chief of staff who shepherded David Souter through the confirmation process, to help with Thomas' nomination.
Meanwhile, civil-rights groups concerned with Thomas' opposition to affirmative action said they would not record on such issues, not his race.
"We will review his record just as closely as if he were not an African-American," said Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The Rev Jesse Jackson issued a statement that said retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall's seat should go to a judge who shared Marshall's
views on affirmative action, civil liberties, women's and workers'
Jackson said the views made Marshall valuable and vital to the court
"Unless Judge Clarence Thomas' views have changed, he does not represent that tradition," Jackson said. "The Senate, in its confirmation process, has standard and the heritage of Justice Thurgood Marshall to be protected."
Bush on Monday nominated the 43-year-old Thomas, a member of the S. Curet Court of Appeals for the District of Maryland Circuit, to replace Marshall.
The abortion-rights group distributed copies of Thomas's speech, given to the conservative Heritage Foundation and served as an essay by Heritage trustee Lehmann.
"All persons cannot be endowed both with the liberty to take innocent life by abortion and with the inalienable right to live." Lehrman wrote. Later in the essay, Lehrman referred to the abortion rights granted in the Roe decision as a spurious right born exclusively of
judicial supremacy with not a single trace of lawful authority, implicit or explicit, in the actual text or history of the Constitution itself.
On Monday, Thomas declined to answer when asked his views on abortion.
Kate Michelman, executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League, urged the Senate to reject the nomination unless Judge Thomas explicitly repudiated this legal philosophy and clearly recognized that the Constitution protected the fundamental right to privacy including the right to choose an abortion.
Hooks and other civil-rights leaders generally voiced concern about Thomas' outspoken opposition to affirmative action as a discrimination remedy while he was chairperson of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the Reagan administration.
Civil-rights groups will have to decide whether Thomas' record on such issues is negative enough to force his this nomination to succeed Marshall.
Fireworks
Brandon Oakes, 14, of Raymore, Mo., supplies fireworks for the opening of OK Fireworks, south of 31st and Iowa streets. Bran-
don's family has operated a fireworks stand in Lawrence for 12 years. See Page 9 for more about Fourth of July activities.
Slovenia attacks federal army to gain border posts
The Associated Press
JLUBJIANA, Yugoslavia — Slovenian militia members armed with rockets yesterday ambushed a federal army tank convey and fought for control of key border posts. The army called in air strikes and the chief of staff said a truce was no longer possible.
The federal army said seven to 10 people were killed and 13 wounded in yesterday's fight against the right-wing militant as many as eight people died in one firefight alone.
The death toll in Slovenia was
expected to rise in the heaviest day of fighting since Slovenia and neighboring Croatia declared independence June 25.
After a meeting with the federal president yesterday, Slovenia offered new terms for a truce, saying it no longer demanded that federal troops lay down their arms before they attack their bases. But the federal president is a militant Croatian, and it was not clear whether the Serb-dominated army, increasingly acting on its own, would accept the peace offer.
Violence involving federal troops also broke out for the first time in a week in Croatia, where soldiers opened fire on demonstrators throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the military tanks leaving a barracks in Zureb.
Three civilians were killed, the news agency Tanugi reported.
In Beilgrade, hundreds of distraught parents of soldiers serving in Slovenia stormed the Serbian parliament to demand that the troops return home. Police used tear gas in a vain attempt to disperse the crowd,
which crashed through the gates and poured into the chamber where a session was under way.
At 9 p.m. yesterday, Slovenia proposed an immediate end to hostilities, in a statement released after a meeting between Slovenian President Milan Kucan; Vasil Tupurkowski, the Macedonian representative on the federal presidency; and Music, the leader of the presidency.
Kucan said Slovenians had been toid to stop offensive maneuvers.
Tupurkovski added that Slovenia
had dropped its previous insistence
that backups return to bar-
kards without being.
Hours after Slovenia's proposal, however, the army chief of staff was quoted as saying it was too late for a truce.
"Under the existing circumstances, a truce is no longer possible, which forced the supreme command to act actively." Gen. Blagio Adzic said.
Adzic, a Serbian hard-liner, is seen on Croatian and Slovenian leaders as they discuss a political crisis.
His statements suggested that the army, which has exercised considerable autonomy from the fractious federal government, might act on its behalf. But the frustration of army generals at their failure in the Slovenese campaign.
In another development, Croatia showed its commitment to independence by replacing its defense and ministers with extreme nationalists.
independence drives.
▶ See related story Page 7
KU requests use of University funds to clean up Hoch
Quinn Oppenheimer/KANSAN
Wayne Light, McEilaney Fence Builders of Lawrence employee, rigged a pole yesterday for a fence being built to surround Hoch.
By Kellev Frieze
Kansan staff writer
Because the request for emergency fund assistance was not passed Friday at the state Finance Council meeting, the University must use its own funds to stabilize the stabilization of Hoch, said Del Shankel, interim executive vice chancellor.
The University will seek Board of Regents authorization to use KU repair and improvement funds for the cleanup of Hoch Auditorium.
Chancellor Gene A. Budg sent a letter to the Board of Regents on Monday requesting permission to transfer $8,850 designated for the repair of the stone barn behind operations to Hoch's cleanup.
Another possible resource is money that was allotted for roofing repairs at Hoch, Shankel said. Almost $300,000 was allocated for the repairs before Hoch was gutted by fire June 15.
That money would pay for already completed work on Hoch such as the engineers inspection, construction and safety fence installation.
The state Finance Council requires a unanimous vote from its nine members to allocate money
from the emergency fund. The vote Friday was 8-1 in favor of allocating the money.
Bogina said money for roof repairs should be rerouted for Hoch cleanup instead of using the emergency fund.
Sen. Gus Bogina, R-Showne, who voted against the request, said KU had almost $600,000 that could be spent on Hoch.
"They have more money on hand than the emergency fund has," Bogina said. "If KU did not have the money on hand, I would vote to take it out of the emergency fund."
Kansas law states that the emergency fund is for repair or replacement of any building owned by the state that has been damaged. The property's sabotage, fire, flood, wind, tornado, catastrophe, or act of God if
Shankel said KU had taken the appropriate action in requesting money from the emergency fund.
Shankel said the roofing contract money might be used for Hoch's cleanup. He was unsure how much of the $292,000 would be left after the contract was cancelled and the University determined how much the contractor would be paid for work already begun.
the building is necessary to the agency.
The rest of the $60,000 that Bogina specified was $336,351 of "unspen, unallocated, unencumbered, money left in the city repair and improvements funds from fiscal year 1991, he said.
Keith Nitcher, University director of business affairs, said the unused portion of the improvement fund was carried over each year and allocated toward different projects.
Diverting money to Hoch will mean that other projects do not get completed. he said.
The Board of Regents allocated $2.4 million to the University for repair and rehabilitation of buildings for fiscal year 1992, which began Monday. This is $1 million more than last year. The money comes from the state Educational Building Fund.
Bogina said the fact that more than $300,000 was not used in fiscal year 1991 indicated that the University would not need the $2.4 million in UU repairs and improvements by the Board of Regents for fiscal 1992.
"If they couldn't spend it all in '91, how could they spend it in '92?" he said.
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