Supreme Court

WASHINGTON -- Allowing Irish-American groups to ban gays from their St. Patrick's Day parades, the Supreme Court yesterday gave parade organizers a constitutional right to keep out those whose views they don't like.The unanimous decision goes beyond celebrations of St. Patrick's Day and reaches Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and other parades year-round when they are organized by private groups. The issue has arisen, for example, over July 4 parades in Catonsville, where organizers have banned homosexual veterans.

WASHINGTON -- A worker takes a boat across a river or a larger body of water, going to or from an on-land job. In a boating accident en route, the worker is injured. Is that employee a longshore worker or dockworker, entitled to special compensation? The Supreme Court gave an implied answer yesterday: maybe yes, maybe no.In a brief order with no explanation, the court refused to clear up a dispute among lower federal courts on the legal status of workers who are hurt or die while commuting over navigable waters.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland and most other states got final clearance from the Supreme Court yesterday to continue taxing income that shareholders receive when their mutual funds put money indirectly into federal government securities.In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that federal law does not bar states from taxing income earned from "repurchase agreements" that are entered into by mutual funds.That ruling overturned a decision by the Nebraska Supreme Court that had granted state-tax immunity to those kinds of mutual fund investments.

For the first time in history, there will be two women on the Supreme Court. In the words of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, due to be that second woman, this "significant" development "contributes to the end of the days when women, at least half the talent pool of our society, appear in high places only as one-at-a-time performers."Though President Clinton's methods in selecting his firsnominee to the high tribunal were distasteful and even demeaning to those on an ever-changing list of prospects, in the end he came out right.

WASHINGTON -- Justice Sarbanes? Senator Schmoke?In the end, it never happened. But last week, for a moment at least, President Clinton pondered aloud the idea of putting Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes on the Supreme Court and seeing Maryland's seat in the Senate go to Mr. Clinton's old chum, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke of Baltimore.White House officials confirmed yesterday that roughly an hour and a half before phoning Judge Stephen G. Breyer to inform him that he was being nominated for the high court, Mr. Clinton blurted out Mr. Sarbanes' name as a possible alternative choice for the nomination.

JUDGE Ruth Bader Ginsburg has won endorsement from enough key senators to forecast an easy confirmation to the Supreme Court, barring unforeseen developments.That provides a calm setting for assessing one doctrinal speed bump in the process: her critique of the scope and footing of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision to legalize abortion.In a 1984 speech and later articles, Judge Ginsburg suggested that Justice Harry A. Blackmun's majority opinion was unnecessarily "muscular." While she applauded Roe's voiding of the Texas law at issue, she wondered if Roe had outstripped its political support by striking down virtually every state abortion statute.

In a victory for recovering alcoholics, former drug users and the mentally ill, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that cities may not use zoning laws to keep out group homes for people who are considered disabled under federal law.The court's decision raised a legal cloud over zoning ordinances in communities across the nation, including Baltimore and other Maryland communities.Article, Page 3A

WASHINGTON -- The special prosecutor in the Iran-contra affair said yesterday that he will ask the Supreme Court to reinstate the criminal conviction of former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter.Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who had not made up his mind earlier, told the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here that he was taking the case on to the Supreme Court to try to salvage the five guilty verdicts against Mr. Poindexter.The former White House aide to ex-President Ronald Reagan had been convicted of a plot to disrupt Congress' probe of the Iran-contra scandal by destroying documents, of obstructing that inquiry and of lying to Congress.

WASHINGTON -- Two former leaders of the Howard County sheriff's department failed yesterday to get the Supreme Court to hear their constitutional challenge to being fired for imitating Nazis while on the job.Former Major Donald Pruitt and his brother, former Sergeant Dennis Pruitt, the No. 2 and 3 ranking officers in the department, were fired in February 1991 by the then-newly elected sheriff, Michael Chichiolo.While running for the sheriff's post, Mr. Chichiolo criticized the Pruitts for staging parodies of the old TV series, "Hogan's Heroes," in the County Courthouse.