Bader Ginsburg

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that federal inmates who used guns in their crimes cannot receive a credit that cuts a year off prisoners' sentences if they undergo treatment for drug abuse. In a program enacted six years ago, Congress barred only violent criminals from that sentence-reducing benefit. But yesterday, the court decided by a vote of 6-3 that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons was free to exclude another group - inmates who committed nonviolent crimes while carrying or using guns.

WASHINGTON -- A three-judge federal appeals court panel aimed hard questions yesterday at the Robert E. Lee Park Defense Fund's request for an injunction to halt the state's construction of the 27.5-mile Baltimore light-rail line.Chief Judge Patricia M. Wald and the two other U.S. Court of Appeals judges, hearing oral arguments, repeatedly questioned the assertion of the park group's lawyer that a federal environmental-impact statement is required for the entire $446 million mass transit project even though only two small segments will be built with federal money.

BOSTON -- Now, in the season of her discontent, it is well to remember that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was always called a moderate. In fact, when she was nominated to be the second woman on the Supreme Court, there were feminists who added another modifier: too moderate. I always thought that was a bad rap. Justice Ginsburg went to law school when textbooks still read: "Land, like woman, was meant to be possessed." Her dean asked the nine women in her class of 500 why they were taking a man's seat.

It was the pictures and riveting testimony that convinced a Philadelphia jury that abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell was guilty of murdering three infants born alive following botched late-term abortions and also guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of Karnamaya Mongar, who overdosed on Demerol during an abortion at Dr. Gosnell's clinic. How ironic that the Gosnell decision was delivered the day after Mother's Day. The two-month trial has reignited the abortion debate. But while many states have managed to impose some restrictions on abortion clinics, establish informed consent laws, and in some cases require a woman to view a sonogram before aborting an unborn child, abortion on demand for almost any reason and at most stages of pregnancy remains legal in every state.

Regardless of whether the Supreme Court is ready to declare a constitutional right to gay marriage, it has the responsibility to fully recognize the decisions Maryland and eight other states, plus the District of Columbia, have made to allow same-sex couples to wed. There is little other conclusion that could be drawn from the arguments today on the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which banned all federal recognition of same-sex...

President Clinton has nominated candidates for the three vacancies on the U.S District Court for the District of Maryland. Good. It's about time.The court has been seriously understaffed due to retirements. Those three vacancies represent 30 percent of the federal bench in the state. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which hears appeals from Maryland, is also understaffed. It has 15 authorized judgeships -- and three vacancies, or 20 percent. Overall, the federal district courts and courts of appeals are operating at about 85 percent strength.

IF REPUBLICANS are more incensed than usual over "liberal" judges, it must be an election year. You can say the same about Democrats' indignation at GOP charges that their president has packed the courts with liberal appointments.But there's nothing wrong with this ideological back-and-forth. Appointing federal judges and Supreme Court justices is an important presidential power and one that can influence public policy long after a president has left office. The nature of a president's judicial appointments is a legitimate campaign issue.

WASHINGTON -- Dividing 5-4, the Supreme Court yesterday gave governments at all levels the authority to give out information from official files selectively, allowing groups to get the data only if they will use it in ways that officials approve.In the first significant ruling of the court's term, the justices split in reinstating a California law that permits police to release records of suspects' arrests, but only to groups that promise not to use the data for commercial purposes.The court in the past has ruled that the Constitution imposes no duty on the government to make public anything that is in official files.

WASHINGTON - In a major blow to civil rights claims, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that states and programs that receive federal money cannot be sued for actions that have a discriminatory effect on members of a specific group unless the discrimination was intentional. The court, ruling 5-4, struck down a challenge to an Alabama policy that requires driver's license exams to be given only in English. A Hispanic woman argued that the policy violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars recipients of federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court has limited the power of states to oversee financial institutions, ruling that Michigan can't regulate the mortgage-lending subsidiaries of Wachovia Corp. and other federally chartered banks. The justices, voting 5-3, said yesterday that banks regulated by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have a broad shield from additional state scrutiny. Calls have been made for tighter regulation of the mortgage business because of the subprime lending crisis.