Putting aside its traditional claims of detachment from the hurly-burly of politics, the Supreme Court in its current term served up its own "Contract With America."
The overriding theme that emerged from members of the court's conservative majority is that they - like the backers of the GOP manifesto that sailed through the House and is now pending in the Senate - favor strong clamps on the power of the federal government.In what may be the most significant decision of the term, the high court struck down a federal law banning guns in and around schools. The five-justice majority said Washington lacked the constitutional authority to make and enforce such laws, and that these kinds of gun prosecutions were best left to states and localities.
In a major affirmative action case, the court, again 5-4, imposed new legal hurdles on the federal government, making its programs to boost job and education opportunities for minorities and women more difficult to defend against charges of reverse discrimination.
But in one case, the court veered away from the Contract With America philosophy. Just as the House itself ultimately backed off the contract's call for limiting the number of terms members of Congress may serve, the court came up one vote shy of approving an Arkansas ballot initiative that would have put term limits on that state's members of the U.S. House and Senate.
Mark Tushnet, associate dean of Georgetown University law school, suggests that the 1994 elections may have emboldened the court's conservatives to be more aggressive. "Something happened between the beginning of the court's term (last October) and now, and that's the 1994 election," he said.
Conservative victories notwithstanding, liberals and moderates had some significant wins in the term that ended Thursday. The hardcore of the court's conservative wing - Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas - were in the minority on important cases involving the environment and criminal law.
Following are major rulings in the 1994-1995 term:
CIVIL RIGHTS
In the Colorado affirmative action case, the court imposed the same tough legal standards on federal programs it had earlier applied to state and local efforts. Under its "strict scrutiny" standard, programs can survive a challenge of reverse discrimination by whites only if they are limited in scope and the government proves they answer specific past discrimination.
Last Thursday, the court ruled that congressional district lines are unconstitutional if race is the "predominant factor" in drawing them, but it did not say that race could not be a factor at all.
Both votes were 5-4.
TERM LIMITS
The court ruled 5-4 in U.S. Term Limits Inc. vs. Thornton that individual states cannot impose limits on terms served by members of Congress. Twenty-three states had approved ballot initiatives limiting terms of federal lawmakers. But the court said qualifications for Congress are limited to those set forth in the Constitution - age, citizenship and state residency.
BUSINESS
The court voted 9-0 in McKennon vs. Nashville Banner to make it more difficult for businesses fighting complaints of age discrimination or other employee civil rights lawsuits to dredge up derogatory information suggesting the worker would have been dismissed anyway.
ENVIRONMENT
In Babbitt vs. Sweet Home, the court ruled 6-3 that the 1973 Endangered Species Act's prohibition on harming spotted owls, woodpeckers and other wildlife applies to logging on private land.
GAY RIGHTS
The usually fractious court united 9-0 in Hurley vs. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston. The court said that as sponsors of a St. Patrick's Day parade, Boston veterans have a First Amendment right to tailor its message by excluding a gay contingent.
RELIGION
In a pair of cases decided last Thursday, the court lowered the wall of separation between church and state a notch. The court ruled 5-4 that the University of Virginia could not refuse to fund the costs of printing a student-run Christian publication if it pays for Jewish, Muslim and other Christian student organizations.
In an Ohio case, the court ruled 7-2 that the state could not bar the Ku Klux Klan from erecting a cross on public grounds where a Christmas tree and Menorah had been allowed to stand.
DRUG TESTING
In an Oregon case the court ruled 6-3 that public school officials may conduct random drug tests on student athletes, even those not suspected of using narcotics, without violating their constitutional protections against unreasonable body searches.
CRIMINAL LAW
In a San Antonio case the court invalidated 5-4 the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, which made it a federal crime to possess a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school.
The Constitution permits Congress to legislate in areas affecting interstate commerce, and in passing the law, Congress cited the interstate commerce clause. But the court ruled that in this case, Congress had failed to prove any linkage between guns in schools and interstate commerce.