Nation & world briefing
High court splits on cross-burning law
Stephen Henderson
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — The Supreme
Court on Monday upheld a
Virginia law that was used to jail
two men who burned a cross in a
family’s front yard, but the jus
tices struck down the state’s use
of the same law to prosecute a Ku
Klux Klan leader who burned a
cross at a rally on a willing own
er’s property.
The difference? The first case
was an act of intimidation, accord
ing to the court, and was not pro
tected by the First Amendment.
But in the other, a Virginia court
told jurors that they could pre
sume that any cross burning was
meant to intimidate. The justices
said that that crossed the line.
“It may be true that a cross
burning, even at a political rally,
arouses a sense of anger or hatred
among the vast majority of citi
zens who see a burning cross,”
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
wrote. “But this sense of anger or
hatred is not sufficient to ban all
cross burnings.”
The ruling struck a middle
ground between two extremes on a
hot-button issue. Some saw the
case as an opportunity for the
court to inveigh against the evils of
ethnic intimidation and its histori
cal connection to racism; others
thought the justices might seize on
the opportunity to show unbridled
support for free expression. The
opinions produced a little of both,
with a decision that does not de
stroy either side.
“I think this is a sound compro
mise that a substantial part of the
country, and maybe a majority,
can accept,” said Rodney Smolla,
a University of Richmond law pro
fessor who represented the defen
dants challenging the Virginia law
in the Supreme Court.
“The court is demanding that
society allow people to burn the
cross when they’re doing that to
express a political message, but
they’re allowing society to ban
cross burning when it’s about in
timidation,” he said.
Virginia Attorney General jerry
Kilgore called the ruling a victory.
“This is a great day for Virginia,”
he said.
The court’s complicated ruling
produced five opinions and reflect
ed significant division among the
justices about how states can con
struct cross-burning bans without
trampling free-speech rights.
"The court is
demanding that
society allow people to
burn the cross when
they're doing that to
express a political
message, but they're
allowing society to ban
cross burning when it's
about intimidation
Rodney Smolta
University of Richmond
law professor
O’Connor’s opinion upholding
the law was joined by four other
justices, but only three others
agreed with the part that invali
dates the provision of the law pre
suming that all cross burnings are
designed to be intimidating. Jus
tice John Paul Stevens wrote a
one-paragraph concurrence.
Justice Antonin Scalia
concurred with much of O’Con
nor’s ruling but would not have
invalidated any part of the law;
he instead would have sent the
cases back to lower courts to
sort out the problems with pre
sumed intent.
Justice David Souter, joined by
justices Anthony Kennedy and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissented
from the part of O’Connor’s opin
ion that said cross burning could
be singled out for punishment.
Souter would have overturned the
Virginia law altogether because it
violates free-speech protections
and would prefer that laws deal
with intimidation in general,
rather than focusing on specific
forms of it.
Finally, Justice Clarence
Thomas, who spoke eloquently
against any protection for cross
burning when the cases were ar
gued last year, wrote a dissent that
mirrored what he said then.
Thomas said he would have up
held the Virginia law in its entire
ty and that he strained to see le
gitimate First Amendment issues
in the case. They had been avoid
ed, he said, by the fact that Vir
ginia’s law focused only on intimi
dation, which does not merit
free-speech protection.
Thomas’ feelings about cross
burning garnered a lot of attention
last year because they seem in
consistent both with his conserva
tive views on race and with his
staunch support of First Amend
ment rights.
His dissent in the case has some
court watchers wondering whether
there are implications for his deci
sion in another important case
with racial overtones, the chal
lenge to the University of Michi
gan’s affirmative action policies.
Thomas has traditionally opposed
affirmative action, and most see
him as an almost sure vote against
the policies in the Michigan case.
“But I wouldn’t necessarily
count on that,” said Sheldon
Steinbach, general counsel for the
American Council on Education.
“If he can make an exception to
First Amendment protections be
cause of the history of cross burn
ing and its ties to threats and vio
lence, he may also be able to make
an exception to equal-protection
considerations for the limited use
of race in college admissions.”
A ruling on the affirmative-ac
tion case is expected by July.
© 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
TT?"r"
WtXV"...■"■■P'W'ai
War
continued from page 1
Hussein’s inner circle, al-Majid or
dered a poison gas attack that
killed thousands of Kurds in 1988.
“We believe that the reign of
terror of Chemical Ali has come to
an end,” Rumsfeld said. “To Iraqis
who have suffered at his hand ...
he will never again terrorize you
or your families.”
Other officials said they would
await further examination of the
human remains found in a build
ing in Basra where al-Majid and
other Iraqi leaders were said to
be meeting.
“Until they do the DNAI am not
going to speculate,” said Col. Lar
ry Brown, operations chief for the
1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
“This guy has been like Freddy
Krueger. We’ve killed him four or
five times.”
In Basra, British troops consoli
dated their control of the south
ern city of 1.3 million people, but
hundreds of residents indulged in
widespread looting — breaking
into the central bank and retail
shops and setting fire to a hotel.
Further north, 10,000 U.S.
Marines streamed across
makeshift bridges and floated
aboard amphibious vehicles,
crossing a tributary of the Tigris
River and rushing into the out
skirts of Baghdad near the Rashid
military airfield. Army forces al
ready held important strategic
and symbolic positions in the
heart of the city.
And so, early Tuesday, fending
off sporadic enemy fire, large
numbers of allied forces occupied
key precincts of both Baghdad
and Basra, Iraq’s two largest cities.
Both cities were virtually encir
cled by U.S. and British troops.
“What we’re trying to do is sur
round the city,” Brown said of
Baghdad. “Keep the rats in and
the reinforcements out.”
Asked if elements of the Army’s
3rd Infantry Division would re
main at the presidential palace
and other locations in Baghdad or
withdraw, Navy Capt. Frank
Thorp said: “Obviously, they don’t
feel they’re vulnerable, as they’re
still in there.”
President Bush and British
Prime Minister Tony Blair, meet
ing Monday in Belfast, Northern
Ireland, concentrated on forging a
plan for post-war Iraq. As they
consulted, U.S. officials in the
southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr
prepared for the arrival of retired
U.S. Lt. Gen. Buck Walters, as
signed to plant the seeds of an in
terim government.
“It is time for all of us to think
about the post-hostility stage,
how we create a representative
government consisting of all ele
ments of Iraqi society,” Powell
said. The Bush-Blair summit will
continue Tuesday.
U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks
warned, however, “there’s still a
great deal of hazard out there” on
the battlefield, and more evidence
of that flared Monday.
An Iraqi rocket slammed into
an Army base on the southern
outskirts of Baghdad, killing four
people — two U.S. soldiers and
journalists from Spain and Ger
many. On the eastern flank, two
Marines were killed and three
wounded when an artillery shell
struck their armored amphibious
vehicle as it approached Baghdad.
The official U.S. military death
toll rose to 86, with more than
150 wounded.
In Baghdad, the day’s action be
gan around sunrise, when troops
from the 3rd Infantry Division in
more than 100 armored vehicles
rolled into central Baghdad as
warplanes provided cover against
mostly disorganized resistance.
By the end of the day, at the
domed New Presidential Palace,
U.S. soldiers strolled under huge
chandeliers, smoked cigarettes in
a reception room, examined
seized documents in a filing room
and established a prisoner of war
collection center in the courtyard.
In a central Baghdad square,
U.S. Army tank crews used a 40
foot statue of Hussein for target
practice, destroying it. They also
occupied a parade ground where
Hussein often reviewed his troops
During their brazen thrust into
Baghdad, U.S. tank columns ap
proached the Al-Rashid Hotel, un
til recently home to many foreign
journalists, and passed close to
the Iraqi Ministry of Information,
according to U.S. officials.
ODE tloriet ore archived on-line at www.dailyenierQld.coni
Nearby, Iraqi Information Min
ister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf
asserted that the American inva
sion had been repulsed and its sol
diers slaughtered.
“Be assured Baghdad is safe, se
cure and great,” he said. “There is
no presence of the American
columns in the city of Baghdad,
none at all.”
As he spoke, a U.S. shell landed
nearby.
© 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services. Peterson
is with the Marines in Baghdad;
Smolowitz is at allied headquarters
in Qatar; Merzer reported
from Washington. Also contributing
were Knight Ridder Newspapers
correspondents Scott Canon
with the Army near Baghdad;
Andrea Gerlin with the Marines outside
Baghdad; Jessica Guynn
at the Pentagon; Tom Lasseter with U.S.
chemical detection teams in Iraq;
Fawn Vrazo in Belfast, Northern Ireland;
Juan O. Tamayo at Marine headquarters
in Iraq; and Jeff Wilkinson in Kuwait
City, Kuwait
r
Pauline Lubens San Jose Mercury News
Sgt. Jim Sheppard guards a compound in the center of Basra, Iraq, on Monday as city
residents walk past In other areas of the city, residents rioted and looted.
In Partnership with UO Bookstore!
AMD3
The AMD Duron:
A Workhorse
Without Peer
no iCompetitor
AMD Duron 1200
$479.99
CUSTOMIZING
• Gigabyte GA-7VKML ATX
• 20 GB 5400 RPM Drive
• On-board Savage Video
• 128 MB DDR Memory
• Monitor NOT included
This section of our web site is fun!
Here you will find everything you
need to make the best looking
computer on your block.
Check it out at:
www.voscomputers.com
System includes A TX case, 250 Watt power
supply, Windows XP Home, 52XCD, 56K
V. 90 modem, floppy, mouse, keyboard, MiCiOSOlft'_
sound, and stereo speakers OEM System Bulider
Gold Member 2002
3131 West 11th. Ave. Call us at 343-8633 Open Mon-Sat 10-6
NOS Inc. S>sii
ibjcci ro cha