Supreme Court Justice

WASHINGTON - Any time the Supreme Court and the nation lose a justice who has stood above the other jurists who have served there, monuments to that influence are lined up to be worshiped, like the solid and towering Druid relics at Stonehenge.Seldom does an observer stop to shed a quiet tear over a loss of civility and humility. Those qualities were two of the outstanding monuments left by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., who died last week at age 90, passing away quietly in his sleep at home in Richmond.

LATE IN 1995, a group of mostly black students from Prince George's County, was taken on a field trip to the Supreme Court of the United States. After touring the building and hearing explanations of how cases are argued and decided, the students met Justice Clarence Thomas, who invited them to his chambers.The Supreme Court justice and the middle school kids sat and talked for more than 90 minutes. It's the kind of thing Justice Thomas does regularly -- and no other member of the court does.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told 400 people at the University of Baltimore Law School last night that courts should not use legislative history to interpret laws, that he does not feel any sense of power in the job and that he is sorry the First Amendment required him to sanction burning of the American flag."

HUGO BLACK: A BIOGRAPHY. By Roger K. Newman. Pantheon. 741 pages. $30. TO THE VERY end of his long life, Hugo Black was viewed by many as a one-dimensional enigma, the former Ku Klux Klansman who became a great libertarian Supreme Court justice.To his detractors, especially his fellow Southerners during the rancorous struggle over school desegregation, Black exemplified political hypocrisy. To his idolaters like Max Lerner, Black's early membership in the Klan represented "simply a piece of political behavior" necessary to get elected and achieve more reachable liberal goals.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Jan and Roberta DeBoer have given up their long and bitter court fight and told 2 1/2 -year-old Jessica she is going away.U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens refused Monday to block a Michigan Supreme Court order that the girl be returned next week to her birth parents, Daniel and Cara Schmidt of Blairstown, Iowa."

The first critics of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg were pro-choice leaders. That is doubly surprising. It is a surprise to the critics themselves because candidate Bill Clinton promised them he would apply a "litmus test" to this nomination. The test was that the nominee support Roe vs. Wade, which Judge Ginsburg has criticized. But today's criticism is itself a surprise. We say that because closely read, Judge Ginsburg's views on Roe are not really inconsistent with the ideals of the pro-choice movement.

WASHINGTON -- Two years ago, David Hackett Souter's image was dour, indeed: the bachelor no one knew and ascetic New Englander who lived alone in the woods, quietly reading heavy legal tomes by pale candlelight.After his sophomore year as a Supreme Court justice, however, Mr. Souter already is well on his way to becoming one of the most influential members of that tribunal, regularly displaying the solid capacity of a soon-to-be dominant jurist.He has been observed closely by court analysts because so little was known of him when he was plucked from obscurity to be President Bush's nominee to succeed one of the giants of modern court history, Justice William J. Brennan Jr.Because Mr. Souter is an intensely private person who does not yearn to be conspicuous, even in one of the most powerful and public institutions in Washington, what there has been to observe was his role in court hearings and his opinions.

Gov. Bill Clinton said he would nominate as a Supreme Court justice only a person who supports Roe vs. Wade, the abortion decision. So Bill Moyers asked Governor Clinton, "Is that not a litmus test?" Such litmus testing of judicial nominees is what the Democrats have been criticizing the Reagan and Bush administrations for applying for years. (Their test was supposed to find judges who opposed the Roe decision.)The governor's answer was, "It is, and it makes me uncomfortable, [but] I would want the first judge I appointed to believe in the right to privacy and the right to choose."

WASHINGTON -- It is unconstitutional for the government to give women a special preference when they seek radio or television station licenses, a federal appeals court here ruled yesterday -- in a decision written by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling on a dispute over a Frederick County radio license, nullified a series of federal laws as well as the Federal Communications Commission's 13-year-old policy aimed at getting more women into station ownership.

Last year, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference endorsed Clarence Thomas' nomination to be a Supreme Court justice. It was the only civil rights organization to do so. This week, the SCLC board at a meeting in Baltimore voted "no confidence" in Justice Thomas.Justice Thomas has cast several votes and written an opinion that dismay civil rights supporters. He has agreed with the court's most conservative member, Antonin Scalia, in almost every case. But we think it is a little early to give up on Justice Thomas.

In a speech before more than 1,000 law students and attorneys at Baltimore's Lyric Opera House yesterday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia set out to dispel the notion that his judicial philosophy always leads him to ultra-conservative opinions. He pointed to an instance where he agreed that flag burning was a form of protected and legal speech. Scalia said the morning after the court's opinion was announced, his "very conservative" wife began humming You're a Grand Old Flag over breakfast as a form of protest.

Democrats seek to stifle the will of the public In relation to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy says, "If the president abuses his power and nominates someone who threatens to roll back the rights and freedoms of the American people, the American people will insist that we oppose that nominee" ("Stage set for battle over a nominee to high court," July 2). Abuses his power? The last time the Democratic nominee for president got more than 50 percent of the popular vote was in 1976, almost 30 years ago. In the 103rd Congress (1993-1995)

WASHINGTON - The Senate ended the filibuster of California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown yesterday when 10 Democrats crossed party lines and voted to close debate, clearing the way for a confirmation vote today on her nomination to the second-most powerful court in the country. The motion to end debate passed 65-32, more than the 60 votes required. Brown is expected to be the second long-stalled judicial nominee confirmed after a bipartisan group of maverick and traditionalist senators cut a deal last month to break an impasse over confirming President Bush's picks for the federal courts.

A short stroll through Annapolis - starting at the State House grounds, then heading over to Main Street down to the water - provides a window into the long walk of black history in America that is ideal for adults and children alike. Several public artworks in Annapolis are well worth the time it takes to walk between them as portals to the past. The Colonial-era city was made for walking, so no two points are far apart. Like Maryland itself, the state capital contains contradictions when it comes to its record on race.

WASHINGTON - Any time the Supreme Court and the nation lose a justice who has stood above the other jurists who have served there, monuments to that influence are lined up to be worshiped, like the solid and towering Druid relics at Stonehenge.Seldom does an observer stop to shed a quiet tear over a loss of civility and humility. Those qualities were two of the outstanding monuments left by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., who died last week at age 90, passing away quietly in his sleep at home in Richmond.

LATE IN 1995, a group of mostly black students from Prince George's County, was taken on a field trip to the Supreme Court of the United States. After touring the building and hearing explanations of how cases are argued and decided, the students met Justice Clarence Thomas, who invited them to his chambers.The Supreme Court justice and the middle school kids sat and talked for more than 90 minutes. It's the kind of thing Justice Thomas does regularly -- and no other member of the court does.

HUGO BLACK: A BIOGRAPHY. By Roger K. Newman. Pantheon. 741 pages. $30. TO THE VERY end of his long life, Hugo Black was viewed by many as a one-dimensional enigma, the former Ku Klux Klansman who became a great libertarian Supreme Court justice.To his detractors, especially his fellow Southerners during the rancorous struggle over school desegregation, Black exemplified political hypocrisy. To his idolaters like Max Lerner, Black's early membership in the Klan represented "simply a piece of political behavior" necessary to get elected and achieve more reachable liberal goals.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told 400 people at the University of Baltimore Law School last night that courts should not use legislative history to interpret laws, that he does not feel any sense of power in the job and that he is sorry the First Amendment required him to sanction burning of the American flag."

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Jan and Roberta DeBoer have given up their long and bitter court fight and told 2 1/2 -year-old Jessica she is going away.U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens refused Monday to block a Michigan Supreme Court order that the girl be returned next week to her birth parents, Daniel and Cara Schmidt of Blairstown, Iowa."

The first critics of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg were pro-choice leaders. That is doubly surprising. It is a surprise to the critics themselves because candidate Bill Clinton promised them he would apply a "litmus test" to this nomination. The test was that the nominee support Roe vs. Wade, which Judge Ginsburg has criticized. But today's criticism is itself a surprise. We say that because closely read, Judge Ginsburg's views on Roe are not really inconsistent with the ideals of the pro-choice movement.