ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 16, 1996 TAG: 9604160097
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether states may enforce their prevailing wage laws and set trade-by-trade minimum compensation for workers on state construction projects.
The justices voted to review a ruling that said such a California law is pre-empted by a federal benefit-protection law.
A decision, expected in 1997, should clarify how far states may go in overseeing the wages and training of construction-industry apprentices.
California law lets contractors pay lower wages to some workers on public projects as long as they can be classified as ``apprentices'' under a state-approved program.
But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last June that the restriction of the apprentice wage to workers registered as apprentices was pre-empted by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
California's appeal is supported in friend-of-the-court briefs submitted by various trade and labor groups and 10 other states - Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington.
In other matters, the court:
* Heard arguments in a challenge by Colorado's Republican Party to federal limits on how much it can spend in campaigns. The state GOP said free-speech rights are being violated, but the Clinton administration said limitless spending has ``significant corruptive potential.''
* Said it will try to settle a dispute between Idaho and the Coeur d'Alene Indians over control of waterways within the tribe's reservation. The court's eventual ruling could offer important new guidelines on state officials' immunity from being sued in federal courts.
* Agreed to use a case from New Jersey to decide how difficult it should be for federal regulators to win lawsuits against officers of failed federally chartered banks.
* Rejected the freedom-of-expression appeal of artist J.S.G. Boggs, whose color reproductions of U.S. currency are not appreciated by those who enforce the federal anti-counterfeiting laws.
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