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Law
Supreme Court Axes Key Federal Powers
Three key decisions
THE Supreme Court removed federal powers in three decisions seen
yesterday as an historic turning point in the way America is governed.
The rulings, which shocked many constitutional scholars, mean
individuals cannot force a state to comply with laws made by the US
Congress. The rulings reverse the expansion of federal power over the 50
states, for the court's five-to-four conservative majority has told
Washington that if it wants its laws enforced it must go to court
itself.
This is impossible, for Washington has neither the staff nor the money
to sue whenever America's 273 million citizens are denied their federal
legal rights. For the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that
"Congress has vast power but not all power" and was not allowed to annex
a state's justice system for use against the state's executive. Justice
David Souter, dissenting, said this demolished 300 years of precedent.
He quoted Lord Chief Justice Holt, who in 1702 stated the fundamental
principle that "if an Act of Parliament be made for the benefit of any
person, and he is hindered by another of that benefit, by necessary
consequence of law he shall have an action". Now, in America, he does
not. At the same time, the court ruled that publishers and software
makers, among others, cannot sue state universities and other state
agencies over stolen copyrights and patents. Taken together, the
decisions immunise states against legal action under non-state laws.
Erwin Chemerinsky, law professor at the University of Southern
California said: "This is a radical change in American government. It
says states can violate federal laws with impunity. Imagine if a state
lab dumps toxic waste into someone's backyard in violation of federal
environmental laws. This says the home owners cannot sue the state for
damages."
The Supreme Court has overturned about 150 federal laws since being set
up by the constitution 212 years ago. But by this week's decisions, some
experts say, it has thrown into dispute the constitution's decree that
the laws of the United States - that is of Congress - are the "supreme
law of the land".
Justice John Paul Stevens accused the majority of acting "much like a
dragon that indiscriminately chews gaping holes in federal statutes". He
said that America was being returned to "the brief period of confusion
and crisis when our new nation was governed by the Articles of
Confederation" which preceded the constitution.
The London Telegraph, June 25, 1999
The Religion Business
Priest Caught with $2.4 Billion in Fake Treasury Notes
They may look like wafers, but they'll soon be crisp new $100 bills
NEW YORK �� A Catholic priest who took a vow of poverty was charged
Wednesday with trying to smuggle into the country $2.4 billion in fake
Treasury notes. The Rev. Mario Beato-Prieto, 35, a Spanish citizen who
was running a parochial school in the Philippines, was arrested Tuesday
at Kennedy Airport after U.S. Customs agents discovered he was carrying
the fake currency in his luggage.
Prosecutors said the priest tried to sell 24 phony $100 million notes
through a broker. He also had $2,000 in cash, plus a document indicating
he had access to another $65 billion in fake currency. But the notes
looked more like $100 million bills adorned with a likeness of Grover
Cleveland, marred by typos and runny ink.
They were confiscated after the priest arrived on a flight from South
Korea. It was not immediately clear what the penalty Beato-Prieto would
face if convicted.
The bald, skinny priest was wearing faded blue jeans Wednesday when he
appeared for arraignment in Brooklyn federal court. After he pleaded
innocent to a charge of foreign transport of false documents, two fellow
Spanish priests � like Beato-Prieto, members of the Augustinian order �
asked the Magistrate Cheryl Pollak to release him into their custody.
"It's very nice two priests are here, but there's obviously something
about this defendant they don't know," she said. Defense lawyer Abraham
Clott also explained that the church could not raise bail because
Augustinians take a vow of poverty.
The judge said she would free Beato-Prieto on Thursday if the four
priests living at the Holy Rosary rectory signed a $25,000 bond. The
defendant would be under church arrest, confined to the rectory and the
chapel when not in court.
At the request of the priests, the judge also agreed that Beato-Prieto
could help say Mass.
Associated Press, June 23, 1999
Der Fuhrer Invades Yugoslavia
Serbs Take Refuge as Revenge Killings Grow
Another NATO success
SERBS and ethnic Albanians fired at each other in a hallway of
Pristina's main hospital yesterday, wounding a guard and a nurse, in a
graphic illustration of tensions in the province.
The gunfire followed exchanges earlier in the day when an Albanian
refugee family returned to their Pristina flat to find a family of Serbs
living there. An Albanian and a Serb were taken to the hospital after
that shooting and the Serb died. The two families had encountered each
other in the hospital hallway and opened fire.
A British officer with the peacekeeping forces and his driver separated
the families and persuaded them to turn over their weapons, which
included several guns and one grenade.
Repeated calls by Nato for restraint by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo did
not help a frail Serb pensioner in Prizren who returned from a shopping
trip to find his 77-year-old wife had been hacked to death with an axe.
Down the street another man was dying of stab wounds in a wave of
killing that caused panic among the town's few remaining Serbs, who fled
to the Orthodox seminary where they now huddle, terrified, penniless and
forlorn.
The world of Trifa Stamenkovic, 85, disintegrated when he found his
wife, Maritsa, lying in a pool of blood on the bedroom floor. "All I did
was go out to the shops to buy some food," he said in the seminary
dormitory. "I got back and could not find my wife so I went outside and
asked for help from a patrol of Nato soldiers. They came into the house
and when they went into the bedroom they found her. All I could see were
her legs lying next to the door and lots of blood. They stopped me from
going any further."
A German soldier said the woman had almost been beheaded by several
blows from what is believed to be an axe. The old man's eyes are now dim
and wretched. He knows he does not have long left to live but the one
thing that would have made his last days bearable has now gone.
Down the street a similar ghastly scene was being played out. Maria
Filipovic, 59, had gone to town for the first time since Serb security
forces left Prizren and the Kosovo Liberation Army had taken over.
When she got back her neighbour told her to prepare herself for bad
news. Nato soldiers had already sealed off her house and they told her
that her 63-year-old husband, Panta, had been found stabbed. "The German
Nato troops said he was still alive and they rushed him to hospital but
he died half an hour later," she said, sitting on one of the dormitory
beds and clasping her hands.
Both she and Mr Stamenkovic went on one last journey with their loved
ones on Wednesday. They attended a hurried burial ceremony at Prizren's
Serbian Orthodox cemetery.
There were no friends, no family and no flowers but a platoon of German
soldiers in helmets and body armour protecting them from any more
Albanian reprisals. Lt-Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the Nato commander in
Kosovo, has led calls by the alliance for restraint by returning
Albanians in Kosovo but the message has gone unheeded in towns such as
Prizren.
Only 70 or so elderly Serbs remain out of a normal population of 8,000
and they are now all holed up behind the high walls of the seminary.
They spend their days talking quietly among themselves, surviving on
supplies provided by M/decins Sans Fronti res.
"I do not know where to go," said Dobrivoje Mojsic, 71, who was kicked
out of his home in the village of Ljubizde, two miles south of Prizren.
"I have no sons or daughters in Serbia so I have nothing if I go there."
On another bed a pensioner had two deep gashes and bruises on his scalp.
According to his wife, he had been beaten with a rifle butt by a member
of the KLA. Attacks on Serbs are not restricted to Prizren. A professor
and two workers at Pristina university were found shot dead yesterday.
The London Telegraph, June 25, 1999
Der Fuhrer Invades Yugoslavia
Clinton Offers $5 Million for Milosevic's Head
Milosevic Offers $37.12 for Clinton's
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department said today it is offering a
reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and
conviction persons wanted by the international war crimes tribunal for
Yugoslavia for crimes committed in the Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts.
Among those sought by the tribunal are Yugoslavia President Slobodan
Milosevic and former Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko
Mladic.
Milosevic and four Yugoslav colleagues were indicted last month for
crimes in the Kosovo conflict. The indictments against Karadzic and
Mladic were handed down in connection with the massacre of 6,000 Bosnian
Muslims in 1995.
Meanwhile, the commander of American forces patrolling Kosovo said today
a 7,000-strong U.S. peacekeeping force will be fully deployed in Kosovo
by late July.
As of Wednesday, there were about 4,500 American troops there, said Army
Brig. Gen. John Craddock.
In addition to danger from land mines and unexploded NATO bombs, the
peacekeepers are beginning to encounter ``rogue elements'' among both
Serbs and ethnic Albanians, Craddock told reporters at the Pentagon in a
telephone interview from his headquarters near Urosevac in southern
Kosovo.
In a separate interview, the Army's new chief of staff, Gen. Eric K.
Shinseki, said the risk of casualties in Kosovo is high. In a previous
assignment, he commanded the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia.
``In places like Kosovo and Bosnia it's a requirement for us to pay
attention to -- because of the kinds of risks that are there -- the
safety of our soldiers,'' Shinseki said. He said the local population
presents security risks because ``for them the war is fairly recent,
fairly fresh, fairly emotional.''
Shortly before Craddock spoke, a group of U.S. Marines was fired upon
from a building near a Marine checkpoint. The Marines returned fire,
surrounded the building and persuaded the assailants to surrender.
Craddock said it was the second time this week that U.S. troops in
Kosovo had been fired upon. The first involved U.S. Army soldiers; in
neither incident were any Americans injured.
Craddock initially reported that two of the people who fired at the
Marines were killed by return fire, but Pentagon officials later said
one had been killed and two were wounded. The assailants were dressed in
civilian clothes, but a NATO spokesman in Pristina, Jan Joosten,
confirmed today that the attackers were Serbs.
``We have become the targets of violent acts,'' Craddock said.
Craddock said this was the kind of problem that he and NATO commanders
had expected to encounter.
``The next challenge is a rogue element that either does not know or
refuses to acknowledge the fact that agreements have been made'' on
ending the violence in Kosovo and demilitarizing the Kosovo Liberation
Army, Craddock said.
As the peacekeeping operation gears up, the Air Force is winding down
its involvement in the Balkans. The first of 11 B-52 bombers flew back
to the United States on Wednesday from Fairford, England, where they had
been based as they flew missions against Yugoslavia throughout the NATO
air campaign. In all, the Pentagon is sending back nearly 400 aircraft
no longer needed now that the war is over.
The 4,500 U.S. Army soldiers and Marines in Kosovo on Wednesday will be
augmented by June 27 with a mechanized infantry battalion from the
Army's 1st Infantry Division, the ``Big Red One,'' and by July 4 with a
Polish parachute battalion.
The Americans are part of a 50,000-strong peacekeeping force commanded
by NATO and charged with pacifying the area so that hundreds of
thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees can return to their homes.
A 1st Infantry Division tank battalion will arrive in mid-July to mark
officially the handover of U.S. peacekeeping responsibilities from the
26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Craddock said. By the third week in
July, the full complement of American peacekeepers should be in place in
the U.S. sector, he said.
The peacekeepers' aim, he said, is to provide ``reassurance to all the
people in the area here that we are here to maintain law and order.''
Associated Press, June 24, 1999
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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