THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 8, 1996 TAG: 9610080336
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 97 lines
The Supreme Court, saying its hands were tied by potential conflicts of interest, shielded some federal judges Monday from having to pay certain taxes imposed on most Americans.
Four justices who might have a financial stake disqualified themselves from considering the case. Their action kept the court from gaining a quorum of six jurists to take the case, and thereby sealed the outcome in a way that could benefit them financially.
Monday's action, although not a precedent-setting decision, had the effect of upholding a lower court's ruling that said it was illegal to begin requiring federal judges to pay Medicare and Social Security taxes in 1983 and 1984.
The order, one of more than 1,500 issued as the court began its 1996-97 term, was extraordinary. Court officials could not immediately find the last time the justices had been so stymied.
The result is a victory for 16 federal judges who sued the government in 1989 over tax-law amendments enacted earlier in the decade.
Those amendments for the first time extended Social Security and Medicare taxation to the president, vice president, members of Congress and the president's Cabinet, federal judges and all new employees of the federal government's executive and legislative branches.
The 16 federal judges, all already appointed to their lifetime jobs when the tax laws were changed in 1983, contended that new taxes unlawfully diminished their salaries.
The impact of Monday's order may not be limited to those 16 judges, however. Justice Department lawyers, who had urged the Supreme Court to tackle the case, argued that the lower court's rationale might prohibit Congress ``from applying any increase in the rate of any tax, including the income tax, to sitting judges' salaries.''
Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer disqualified themselves from considering the case. All had been federal judges before 1983.
Although Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy were federal judges before 1983, they agreed to participate in the case - apparently convinced they were ineligible for the favorable tax treatment because of their respective promotions since then.
Only two of the justices - David H. Souter and Clarence Thomas - were not federal judges as of 1983.
``Since the effect was to create an affirmance of the lower court's ruling, they were probably more circumspect than they had to be,'' New York University law professor Stephen Gillers said of the four justices who disqualified themselves.
``There is something called the `rule of necessity,' which allows the court to act when the interest in having the matter decided is deemed more important than the potential of having a conflict,'' he said.
Gillers, a legal ethics expert, said it's possible the court might someday revisit the issue if one of the four disqualified justices is replaced by someone who was not a federal judge in 1983.
The Constitution, which makes federal judgeships lifetime appointments, further protects judicial independence by stating that judges' ``compensation.
The 16 judges' 1989 lawsuit contended that exposing their salaries to taxes they were not required to pay when they took office amounted to an unlawful diminution of compensation.
A claims court ruled against the judges but a federal appeals court - comprised of three judges who took office after 1984 - reversed that ruling and said the 16 judges who sued need not pay the challenged taxes.
The Clinton administration took the appeals court's decision to the Supreme Court. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A crowd waited on the Supreme Court steps at sunrise Monday, the
opening day of the court's new term. The justices issued more than
1,500 orders as they began the 1996-97 session.
GRAPHIC
IN OTHER ACTIONS
Rejected the appeal of Theodore Kaczynski, who contended that his
prosecution on Unabomber attacks has been so tainted by news leaks
that the government should forfeit its right to make him stand
trial.
Let a New York public school district continue to make charitable
community service a high school graduation requirement.
Passed up a chance to decide, in a Texas case involving allegedly
outrageous behavior by junior high school boys, whether educators
violate federal law when they fail to stop students from sexually
harassing other students.
Rejected a challenge by five Wisconsin anti-abortion protesters
to a federal law that protects access to abortion clinics.
Turned down the bid of former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and
two others to quash charges brought by Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth
Starr that they plotted to hide profits from a multimillion-dollar
cable television deal.
Heard arguments in a dispute over a federal law that requires
cable television systems to carry local broadcast stations. Cable
operators told the justices the ``must carry'' law violates their
free-speech rights, but government lawyers said without it, some
broadcast stations might be forced out of business. by CNB