Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 30, 1994 TAG: 9411300080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``It's very close,'' Justice Antonin Scalia said in discussing his view of the constitutionality of House and Senate term limits, imposed in various forms since 1990 by 22 states.
None of Scalia's eight colleagues contradicted his assessment.
The court will take its initial, private vote in an Arkansas term-limits case Friday and announce its decision by late June.
No matter how the court may rule, Republicans in Congress plan to vote next year on a constitutional amendment to limit congressional terms.
Arkansas voters amended their state constitution in 1992 to limit how many times someone could appear on the ballot. Those who had served two six-year terms in the Senate or three two-year terms in the House could run, but only as write-in candidates.
The Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the measure, ruling that states cannot add to the qualifications for Congress listed in the Constitution - minimum age, state residency and U.S. citizenship for a number of years.
Arkansas Attorney General J. Winston Bryant urged the justices to reverse the state court ruling and uphold the state's ``constitutional authority to encourage rotation in office of its congressional delegation.''
Bryant said such a step was necessary to combat a trend toward ``long-term, entrenched'' incumbents that has proved to be ``less fair, less competitive and less representative.''
Many of the justices' questions sought to clarify whether the Arkansas measure properly is classified as a ``qualification'' or, instead, as a ``time, place and manner'' regulation that states routinely impose on elections.
Louis Cohen, a lawyer for the League of Women Voters, urged the justices to invalidate the Arkansas measure but conceded that he thinks the state court wrongly found it to be a qualification.
Whatever the ballot-access condition is called, Cohen said, ``it is something the states have no power to do.''
A few questions and comments by Scalia and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist suggested they might be the court members most willing to uphold state-imposed term limits.
But questions from Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer employed phrases often used by court members on the fence.
Justice Clarence Thomas was silent.
by CNB