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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1989)
News Digest §&#&* ‘Extraordinary day’ expected Court braces for abortion arguments WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednes day in a Missouri abortion dispute that has become its most closely watched case of the 1980s. Court officials are bracing for “an extraor dinary day” at the usually placid building on Capitol Hill. State officials and the Bush ad ministration are urging the court to use the case to overturn or substan tially limit its 1973 decision that women have a constitutional right to abortion. Even if the court rules on the Missouri abortion regulations nar rowly, the decision will be viewed as a barometer of the current justices’ commitment to the 16-year-old rul ing in Roe vs. Wade. The justices are considered closely divided as to the wisdom and continued vitality of the landmark decision. They will take their initial vote in the Missouri case Friday, discussing their views and beginning the process of drafting and redrafting opinions to accompany the announcement of the court’s decision, expected by July. In an attempt to sway the justices, Americans in record numbers have been writing and telephoning the court to express their views. Tens of thousands of letters arrive each day, and the court’s two switchboards were so Hooded with calls that a rarely used third board had to be acti vated. “Many people have indicated they’ve been asked to call by tele vangelists,’’ court spokeswoman Tom House said. “These people be lieve we are conducting a public opinion survey. We are not.” But court officials, reacting to the outpouring of public sentiment, will take unusual security measures Wednesday. “I expect it will be an extraordi nary day at the Supreme Court,’’ House said. Police lines will keep demonstra tors off court property, but House said 50 members of a group calling itself Oppression Under Target have in formed the court of their plan to en gage in civil disobedience that could lead to their arrest “Pro-choice” and “pro-life” ac tivists plan to conduct competing news conferences outside the court building. Inside the courtroom, House said, “We have no reason to believe the conduct of this oral argument will be any different, any less respectful than any other.” Court police said they would al low people to begin lining up at mid night for the chance of seeing the hour-long argument session that be gins at 10 a.m. EDT. Police said they expect hundreds to be in line when the building opens at 9 a.m. Between 150 and 200 members of the public usually can be seated in the imposing courtroom on a first-come, first-served basis. But because the justices and other court officials have reserved an un usually high number of scats for friends and family members for the argument, only 40 to 50 scats will be available for the general public, House said. Chief Justice William H. Rchnquist refused to allow radio and television coverage of the proceed ings. But a record number ot news media representatives --113 -- arc to be squeezed into the courtroom's press section, where only 35 seats offer an unobstructed view of the action. Some journalists were turned away, told they applied too late to be accommodated. The Roe vs. Wade decision is based on the constitutional right to privacy. The court said a woman’s decision to have an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy must be left to her and her doctor. The court said states may interfere in the abortion decision during the second trimester only to protect the woman’s health, and may take steps to protect fetal life only in the third trimester when the fetus can survive outside the womb. State authority to regulate abor tions after the first trimester was not made absolute, however. A federal appeals court, relying on Roe vs. Wade, struck down as uncon stitutional five key provisions of the Missouri law now under scrutiny. Exxon skipper risked sinking oil tanker VALDEZ, Alaska — Radio mes sages recorded the morning the Exxon Valdez hit a reef show the ship’s captain spent up to an hour trying to rock the tanker free, which could have sunk the ship and spilled more oil, the Coast Guard said Tues day. The captain ignored Coast Guard warnings that trying to move the ship could have made the nation’s worst oil spill almost five times as bad, the recordings show. The state revised the estimate of the oil spilled from the tanker’s punc tured tanks to 11.2 million gallons. Officials said its crews had been busy with the cleanup and were slow revis ing Exxon’s original estimate of 10.1 million gallons. Environmental damage from the oil still is being assessed, but three hatcheries in oil-soaked Prince Wil liam Sound have begun releasing millions of liny salmon because the annual bloom of plankton, an impor tant food source for the fry, was at its peak. “You can’t stop Mother Nature,” said Heather McCarty, spokes woman for the non-profit association that owns the three hatcheries. By mid-May, 800 million salmon fry will be released from five hatcheries throughout the sound. New weapons cut to keep existing arms production WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will slow or cancel several futuristic weapons pro grams, including Star Wars and the stealth bomber, to build more of the arms already in the nation’s arsenal, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said Tuesday. To further cope with fiscal 1990 budget reductions mandated by a new White House-congressional compromise, the Army. Navy and Air Force will reduce their active duty strength of more than 2.1 million by 16,800 men and women, Cheney added. Appearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Ch eney ticked off a list of cutbacks. Many of the bigger decisions al ready tod been disclosed, includ ing the fact that $10 billion had been shaved from the proposed defense budget in the compromise with Congress. The Pentagon's new ouaget authority, if Congress goes along with Cncoev’s bottom line: $295.6 billion. Left intact is a proposed 3.6 percent pay hike for men and women in the military. Adm. William J. Crowe, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said he supported Cheney’s cuts only because of “dismal realities - both political and economic.’’ But Crowe, who testified along with the other members of the Joint Chiefs, said the moves were not justified by any changes in the threat posed by the Soviet Union or in American commitments around the world. Cheney, the former Wyoming representative who testified for the first time since becoming defense secretary last month, said the cuts could not come “without offend ing somebody, without breaking some china, stepping on some toes.” Among the reductions in “pro grams which offered potential, but which we could not afford at this time: • Star Wars,” the program pushed by Ronald Reagan to de velop lasers and other exotic weap ons to shoot down enemy nuclear missiles, will lose $1 billion from its proposal 1990 budget, giving it a new total of $4.6 billion. Cheney said the focus will shift from deployment sometime in the 1990s to research on ‘‘Brilliant Pebbles,” a more advanced sys tem consisting of thousands of orbiting satellites. Spending over five years for the Strategic Defense Initiative would total $33 billion, compared to the $40 billion proposed by Reagan before he left office. •The B-2 stealth bomber will have its production pushed back a year to 1993. Almost $4.1 billion is being cut from the fiscal 1990 and 1991 budgets for the radar-evading plane. Recent estimates of $500 million per plane make it the most expensive in history. •lne Marine corps V-22 Os prey , a battlefield aircraft designed to take off like a helicopter but fly like an airplane, will be dropped. The Pentagon had hoped to spend $25.9 billion on 663 Ospreys, in cluding $1.3 billion in 1990. Ch eney called this decision his most difficult •The National Aerospace Plane, a joint project with NASA, will be scaled back drastically. The high-speed transport could fly around the world in just hours. Cheney decided to cut the pro ject’s fiscal 1990 budget by two thirds, from $300 million to $100 million. •The Midgeunan nuclear mis sile, a single-warhead missile that would be small enough to be car ried and fired from a truck launcher, will be held to $100 million despite President Bush’s decision to develop the missile in addition to a rail-based version of the MX nuclear missile. Bush taps Lucas tor civil rights post despite opposition WASHINGTON - President George Bush announced plans Tues day to nominate William Lucas, a black critic of affirmative action, to become the U.S. Justice Depart ment’s civil rights chief despite op position from the NAACP. Attorney General Dick Thorn burgh, in a statement released by the Justice Department, called Lucas “a talented, decent and compassionate person whom I have known for a number of years.” “Bill Lucas is fully committed to the vigorous and fair enforcement of our country’s civil rights laws and to removing barriers to equal opportu nity for all our citizens,” Thornburgh said. The White House said Bush would nominate Lucas,61,a Detroit lawyer, to be assistant attorney general for civil rights. Lucas, a former Demo crat, lost a race for governor of Michigan in 1986 after he joined the Republican Party. While opponents of the choice appeared to be gearing up for what could be a bruising fight for Senate confirmation, Sen. Edward M. Ken nedy, D-Mass., a leading member of the Judiciary Committee, told report ers in Boston that he would “with hold judgment” on f .ucas pending hearings. “We’ll have a chance to examine his record,” Kennedy said, noting reservations expressed by civil rights groups. Lucas is an opponent of racial quotas and is a critic of affirmative action. Since Thornburgh recom mended Lucas in February, Lucas has drawn criticism from some civil rights leaders who question whether he is qualified to be the government’s chief civil rights enforcer. Ralph Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, an umbrella coalition of 180 organizations, said his group is con cerned that Lucas lacks civil rights and legal experience. The group’s executive committee has not taken a position on Lucas. Neas said it would meet shortly to discuss whether to take one. “William Lucas is a disappoint ing choice for the most important civil rights job in the federal govern ment, a job for which expertise ana experience arc absolutely viuil,” said Arthur J. Kropp, president ol People for the American Way. “Instead of a strong civil rights advocate, Bush has chosen a man whose qualifications and record are at best a question mark,” he added in a statement. On Monday, the National Asso ciation for the Advancement ol Col ored People, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights group, announced its opposition, saying “we do not believe Mr. Lucas is the person lor this post.” But opposition to L.ucas is not universal among black civil rights leaders. The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, praised Lucas in a letter to Thornburgh. Rep. John Conyers, a black Demo crat from Detroit, reiterated his sup port on Tuesday, saying a fight by civil rights groups to block Senate confirmation “would be a useless one, maybe even counterproduc tive.” _. ■ $.50 OFF i Any pizza 475-6363 i NAME_ ADDRESS__| DATE____ EXPIRES 6-31-89 Nebraskan The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 1440®?L* e(Wished by the UNI PuWications Board, we aska Union 34. 1400 R St, LincWdNC. Monday through Friday during the acade year; weekly during summer sessions Readers are encouraged to submit s on ideas and comments to the Daily Nebras* by phoning 472-1763 between 9 am anas p m Monday through Friday The public has access to the PuWications Board ro information, contact Tom Macy, 475-seoo. Subscription price is $45 for one year h Postmaster: Send address changes to _ Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34. i St Lincoln, NE 68586-0448 Second das postage paid at Lincoln. 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