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Recent rulings help, hurt conservative causes

   During the last month of its 1999-2000 term, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down some blockbuster decisions which could help define the political landscape for years to come on issues such as prayer, homosexuality, pornography, abortion and parental rights. Below is a summary of the topics and high court rulings:

Church/State
Two Supreme Court decisions focused on thorny issues relating to the separation of church and state. In perhaps the most controversial case, the high court ruled 6-3 that a Texas School District's policy allowing, but not requiring, students to pray at football games is unconstitutional.

Steve Crampton, Chief Counsel for the AFA Center for Law & Policy (CLP), said, "The Court is making it impossible for citizens and communities to publicly express their deepest and most cherished values. How does a culture sustain itself when its moral center is removed?"

In another 6-3 ruling, the court said a federal program that allowed public schools to loan things like computers, software, televisions, VCRs and library books to religious schools is constitutional.

CLP Senior Trial Attorney Brian Fahling said the decision was "a slight paring back of the rather hysterical reaction that the Supreme Court has had in the past whenever there was the connection, however slim, between public and parochial schools," he said.

Homosexuals in the Boy Scouts
The Boy Scouts have the right to bar homosexuals from serving as Scoutmasters, the high court said in a surprisingly narrow 5-4 decision. The ruling exempts the Boy Scouts from complying with a New Jersey law which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Although the decision is a victory for pro-family groups, CLP Litigation Counsel Michael DePrimo said, "It is alarming that four Supreme Court justices believe the government can force the Scouts to subject young boys to homosexual activists."

Cable porn
The 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) received another blow from the Supreme Court when it ruled yet another part of the law unconstitutional.

The CDA provision that was voided required cable companies broadcasting sexually explicit programming to broadcast it only between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. The law also required cable companies to use a blocking or scrambling technology that would prevent "signal bleed," an industry term meaning those visual images or sounds that can be seen or heard despite some form of scrambling or blocking.

Under the court's 5-4 ruling, cable operators will be allowed to broadcast pornographic programming 24 hours per day, and can intentionally "signal bleed" pornography as part of its effort to attract new subscribers.

Abortion
Pro-life groups suffered two crushing defeats on the abortion issue as the Supreme Court handed down two controversial decisions.

In a 5-4 decision, the court said Nebraska's ban on partial birth abortions is unconstitutional because it created "an undue burden upon a woman's right to make an abortion decision." Some 30 states have similar laws banning the gruesome procedure.

In a 6-3 split, the Supreme Court upheld a Colorado law that creates a 100-foot "bubble zone" around abortion clinics. The law states that protesters must stay at least eight feet away from people entering, leaving, or even passing by a clinic. Speaking to people or handing out literature is also forbidden by the statute.

Parents' rights
The high court reaffirmed in a 6-3 verdict the right of parents to decide whether and when to allow visitation with their children. At issue was a Washington state statute that granted grandparents legal rights when it came to visiting grandchildren. The Supreme Court said the state law ran afoul of the "fundamental right" of parents to raise their children.

Although the ruling may not have much effect outside Washington, Crampton said the case is a victory for parents. "The Supreme Court decision reaffirms what most Americans have always known, that loving parents know better than judges what is best for their children," he said.

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