Supreme Court aficionados are licking their chops at the interesting array of offerings on the docket for the 1996-97 term.
It promises to be an interesting session sporting 59 cases, 51 carried over from the session that ended July 1. Others will be added as the term progresses.In keeping with the spirit of "interesting," Justice Antonin Scalia entered the court Monday with a beard - the first time one of the court's occupants has sported facial growth since Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes in 1941.
More significantly, the court this term will be closely watched for the insights its rulings will shed on the dynamic and evolving relationship between states and the federal government. Prominent in this regard will be a states' rights challenge to the Brady Bill and gun control. In this case, sheriffs from Montana and Arizona argue that Congress overstepped its bounds in 1994 by mandating that local law-enforcement officials perform background checks on would-be handgun purchasers during a five-day waiting period.
Many will be watching closely to see if the court's recent propensity toward protecting the rights and interests of states and limiting federal intrusion into state and local operations continues.
First-Amendment cases also dot the 1996-97 docket, with the court set to rule on disputes concerning federal regulation of cable television; an Arizona law mandating that state employees speak nothing but English at work; limits on protests at abortion clinics; and restrictions on political candidates' ability to appear concurrently on more than one party's ticket.
Two cases on physician-assisted suicide promise to add controversy and heightened interest to the term. In the similar cases - from New York and Washington - two appeals courts ruled that mentally competent, terminally ill patients have a constitutional right to assistance from a doctor in ending their lives. The states argue that lower courts imposed equality on two morally distinct events - assisted suicide and the withdrawal of unwanted medical treatment.
Another potentially controversial case involves President Clinton and the question of presidential immunity brought about by the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by Paula Jones.
In the war on drugs, the court will decide if constitutional lines have been crossed by a Georgia law requiring candidates for state office to pass a drug test as a prerequisite to appearing on the ballot.
Challenges to race-based voting districts and a potpourri of other cases make this term of the Supreme Court one of the most lively in recent memory.