States win ruling
on Indian gambling
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a major victory
for states’ rights, the Supreme Court ruled
Wednesday that Congress could not force states
into federal court to settle disputes over gam
bling on Indian reservations.
The 5-4 decision, reached over vigorous dis
sent, will have immediate impact for about half
the states, where Indian gambling is a $6 bil
lion-a-year industry. More importantly, the court
signaled a fundamental shift in the balance of
powers between states and the federal govern
ment.
But just how that new alignment will affect
other aspects of American law may not be fully
known for decades.
The court said Congress could not attempt
to resolve stalled negotiations between states
and tribes over on-reservation gambling by
making states and their officials targets of fed
eral lawsuits.
One dissenting justice called the ruling
“shocking” and “profoundly misguided,” but the
court’s majority said he was exaggerating.
The decision “represents a clear restructur
ing of the balance of power between states and
the federal government,” said Bruce Rogow, the
law professor who represented Florida’s Semi
nole Indian tribe in the case.
The nation’s Indian tribes were the nominal
losers, but their setback could be slight. Fed
eral law still allows them to seek help from the
secretary of the interior when state officials balk
at tribal plans for gambling operations.
“The big picture is: States win, Congress
loses and the tribes are still holding their cards,”
Rogow said.
Still, Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles called the
ruling “a significant victory for the people of
Florida.”
“Casino gambling — whether it be in our
communities or on an Indian reservation — is a
bad bet for our people,” he said. “This ruling
strengthens our hand in the effort to defend our
communities from casino gambling.”
Chiles acknowledged that the secretary of the
interior now will be the sole federal arbiter of
disputes between states and Indian tribes over
gambling. But a tribe also might opt for suing
in a state court if frustrated with state officials’
reactions to its gambling plans.
Wednesday’s ruling was extraordinary in two
ways. First, it ended for Congress nearly 160
“The big picture is: States win,
Congress loses and the tribes
are still holding their cards. ”
BRUCE ROGOW
Law professor
years of virtual free rein in making laws affect
ing American Indians. Congress still has great
power in that field, the court said, but cannot
subject states to federal lawsuits.
Second, the decision breathed new life into
the Constitution’s 11th Amendment, which pro
tects states from being sued in federal courts
against their will.
The amendment has been a rallying point,
albeit a somewhat obscure one, for states-rights
advocates.
Writing in dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens
used words like “shocking” and “profoundly
misguided” to describe what the court had done.
He warned that the ruling “prevents Congress
from providing a federal forum for a broad
range of actions against states, from ... copy
right and patent law to ... bankruptcy, environ
mental law and the regulation of our vast na
tional economy.”
Stevens said the ruling could leave people
who had been harmed by a state’s violation of
federal copyright, bankruptcy or antitrust laws
without any legal remedy. State courts have no
authority to handle such claims.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who
wrote the majority opinion, said Stevens was
exaggerating.
Justice David H. Souter, took the rare court
room step of reading for seven minutes from
his 92-page dissenting opinion.
“The court today holds for the first time since
the founding of the Republic that Congress has
no authority to subject a state to the jurisdiction
of a federal court at the behest of an individual
asserting a federal right,” Souter wrote.
Rehnquist said the 11th Amendment re
stricted judicial power and the constitutional
powers given to Congress “cannot be used to
circumvent the constitutional limitations placed
upon federal jurisdiction.”
Brown Bag Diversity Series
f |tv r.AMPUS EAST CAMFUS
. j
Monday, April 1,1996
11:00 am-12:30 pm
"Affirmative Action: Hae Ita
Time Ron Out?"
Presenter: Rev. Andrew Rollins
Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church
Tuesday, April 2,1996
11:30 am-1:00 pm
"Coalition Building and the
Value of Diversity"
Presenter: Madeline Popa
International Students Organization
Wednesday, April 3, 1996
11:30-1:00 pm
" Muttknltnriam: Fact or
Fiction?"
Presenter Dr. Kunle Ojikutu
Assistant Vice Chancellor for
Student Affairs
Thursday, April 4, 1996
11:30 am-1:00 pm
"Diversity: Toward a Better
Understanding"
This session involves cultural
exercises and group interaction.
Presenter: John L. Harris
Special Assistant to the Vice
Chancellor for Student Affairs
| Friday, April 5, 1996
I 11:30 am-1:00 pm
I "Homophobia, Heterosexism,
L Racism: Common Enemies?"
Presenter: Dr. Vem Williams
Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual Student
Services
Monday, Apnl 8, 1996 I
11:30 am-1:00 pm I
"Homophobia, Heterosextsml
Racism: Common Enemies?^
Presenter: Dr. Vem Williams 1
Gay. Lesbian. Bi-Sexual J
Student Services #
Tuesday, April 9, 1996 i
11:30 am-1:00 pm
"Diversity: Towards II
Better Understanding" ^
Tins session involves cultural ^
exercises and group interaction.^
Presenter: John L. Harris n
Special Assistant to the Vice *
Chancellor for Student Affairs
Wednesday, April 10, 1996
11:30 am-1:00 pm
"Mnlticnltnralism: Factor
Fiction?"
Presenter: Dr. Kunle Ojikutu
Assistant Vice Chancellor for
Student Affairs
AH brown bag sessions are
open to everyone and will
be held in the Nebraska
Union. Feel free to bring
youT lunch, beverages will
be provided.
Any questions,
call John L. Harris
at 472-3755
The comet Hyakutake made its closest pass to the Earth, about 9.5 miilion
miles, last weekend and is now speeding on toward the sun, dimming
steadily as it goes.
Comet passes by Earth
WASHINGTON (AP) — Comet
Hyakutake may be a new vision to human
eyes, but scientists say the speeding ball of
ice and debris is behaving like a veteran voy
ager that has made many trips around the sun.
New Hubble Space Telescope photos
clearly show that as Hyakutake cruises by
the sun and is warmed by solar energy, natu
ral geysers erupt with great force through
holes in a crust on the comet’s surface, as
tronomer Harold Weaver said Wednesday.
Weaver said comets that have made many
trips near the sun have developed a crust, a
rigid envelope of debris and refrozen ice. As
the comet returns to the vicinity of the sun,
material under the crust will erupt, forming
spectacular jets.
“If the comet has been around the sun be
fore, you get pressure building under the
crust," said Weaver. “Then you get a hole
blown through this rubble crust and these
jets."
If this was the first trip around the sun for
Hyakutake, he said, “then there wouldn’t be
this crust of rubble formed. You would get
an even, uniform outflow instead of these
jets.”
The Hubble photos show the comet and
its surrounding debris in red, but this is a false
color created by filters and processing to help
experts study the images, Weaver said. The
photos show power jets streaming away from
a slowing center.
There is so much dust erupting that it will
take weeks of studying the photos to deter
mine exactly what is shown, he said.
Astronomers are still calculating the ex
act orbit of Hyakutake, but it is thought to
circle the sun in an elliptical orbit about ev
ery 10,000 years.
If it has been in that orbit since the for
mation of the solar system some 4.5 billion
years ago, Hyakutake could have made thou
sands of trips about the sun, Weaver said.
Hyakutake, named for a Japanese ama
teur astronomer who discovered it in Janu
ary, made its closest pass to the Earth, about
9.5 million miles, last weekend and is now
speeding on toward the sun, dimming
steadily as it goes.
The comet will pass within 21 million
miles of the sun and be blotted from view by
solar glare. It will be seen by Southern Hemi
sphere astronomers in mid-May, but as it
speeds away from the sun the comet will lose
its tail and slowly fade from visibility.
Dole’s choice for running mate
may prove crucial to victory
WASHINGTON (AP) — “Every country
needs a president,” Bob Dole once replied when
asked why he was running. And now he faces a
similar proposition: Every presidential candi
date needs a running mate.
Probably no one knows better than Dole hbw
disastrous a bad choice can be. As President
Ford’s No. 2 man in 1976, he came across as
mean-spirited, a hatchet man — and a drag on
the ticket.
Later, he joked: “I went for the jugular —
my own.”
The Democrats ran commercials showing
Dole’s picture and saying: “When you know that
four of the last six vice presidents have wound
up being president, who would you like to sec a
heartbeat away from the presidency? Hmmm?”
If anything, the choice seems more critical
than usual this time around.
Dole’s age — he is 72 and, if elected, would
be the oldest new president in history — will
force voters to look at his running mate as a
possible occupant of the Oval Office. Moreover,
the running mate will have a greater likelihood
than most to head the ticket in four or eight
years.
So the decision may be the most important
Dole makes between now and Election Day.
How he makes it is important, too.
The nominee could be hurt by a process that
turns the selection into a beauty contest, or hu
miliates the also-rans, or makes the candidate
seem indecisive or the prisoner of one or an
other wing of the party. It’s a mine field, and
Pat Buchanan has been seeding it by suggest
ing he’ll walk out if Dole chooses someone who
supports abortion rights.
It’s a character test, too, and it could run an
spring and into the summer with the whole na
tion watching.
In an interview Tuesday, Dole said that he
hasn’t thought seriously yet about picking a
i 1 .
“/ have a pretty good idea
about what I want to do.
Obviously it will be a younger
person, somebody who's in
good health."
BOB DQLE
GOP candidate
running mate. He said it was unlikely but he
could make a choice before the Republican con
vention in August.
Paul Light, author of a book about the vice
presidency, says Dole needs “someone with a
little bit of sizzle, the unexpected.”
Presidential nominees used to look for “bal
ance” — someone from a different region, gen
eration and outlook. Often, No. 2 was chosen
to appease backers of the presidential nominee’s
chief opponent.
The national, televised nature of campaign
ing has changed everything. Bill Clinton could
ignore the rules and pick A1 Gore, from his re
gion and age group and not far away ideologi
cally.
Nowadays, taking a running mate who dif
fers from the candidate on the issues is risky —
the press will harp on it and so will the opposi
tion party.
For a safe choice, Dole could pick a male
Republican governor. A number of them are
talked about. Such a choice would underscore
his theme that he wants to transfer power from
Washington to the states.
“I have a pretty good idea about what I want
to do,” Dole said a few days ago. “Obviously it
will be a younger person, somebody who’s in
good health. That’s the key factor.”
i
Nebraskan
Editor J. Christopher Hain Night News Editors Rebecca Oltmans
472*1766 Melanie Branded
Managing Editor Doug Kouma Anne Hjersman
http://www.unl.edu/DailyNeb/
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