
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 31, 1990                   TAG: 9003310242
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

HIGH COURT TO RULE ON FLAGS BY SUMMER

The Supreme Court, in a victory for Republican political strategists, agreed Friday to rule by summer on a constitutional challenge to last year's anti-flag-burning law.

The law, engineered by congressional Democrats, was designed to remove the flag issue from the political arena and to head off steam for a constitutional amendment against burning the flag.

Republican strategists, supported by President Bush, hoped to have the flag issue before the voters this fall.

The 1990 elections are crucial to both parties because the state legislatures will redraw political boundaries after the census results are released.

Acting on a motion by Bush administration lawyers, the Supreme Court announced Friday that it will schedule a special session May 14 to hear arguments in the two pending flag-burning cases.

That allows the justices to decide the cases before their summer recess begins, about July 1.

If the Supreme Court, as expected, strikes down the Flag Protection Act of 1989 by summer, Republicans in Congress say they will push through a constitutional amendment against flag burning and send the matter to the states by the fall.

Two weeks ago, lawyers for the Democratic-controlled House and Senate filed a competing motion with the court asking the justices to follow their normal schedule on the flag case.

Normally, the court allows 90 days for both sides to file briefs. This schedule would have put off arguments until the fall, with a decision coming after the November elections.

Two federal judges have already struck down as unconstitutional the 1989 law, relying on last year's 5-4 ruling by the court.

But congressional defenders of the new federal law say that it is significantly different from the Texas law struck down last year.

That measure made it a crime for anyone to burn a flag in a way that gave "serious offense" to an onlooker.

By contrast, the new federal law is a ban on flag burning "in all circumstances." Therefore, they say it is a "neutral" measure intended to protect the "physical integrity of the flag," rather than to stifle political dissent.

by CNB