Highlights of Supreme Court actions Monday, June 26, 2000:
MIRANDA: The court said police still must warn criminal suspects of their "right to remain silent" when questioned _ a ruling that gave new constitutional luster to its landmark Miranda decision of 1966. The new 7-2 decision said police are required to give the warnings made familiar to generations of Americans by movies and television or else risk getting suspects' confessions excluded as evidence against them.
PRIMARIES: The justices threw out California's primary system, saying primaries that allow voters to cast their ballots for any candidate, regardless of party, violate the rights of state political parties. California's "blanket primary" system, which the justices overturned on a 7-2 ruling, is similar to laws in three other states. The decision avoided deciding the validity of the more common open primary system used in another 20 states.
HATE CRIMES: The court said juries, not judges, must decide whether someone charged with a hate crime was motivated by bias and therefore can be given a higher maximum sentence. The 5-4 decision overturns a 12-year prison sentence imposed on a white New Jersey man who fired shots into a black family's home. The man is entitled to a jury trial on whether he acted out of racial bias, the justices said.
OUTER BANKS: The court ruled that two huge oil companies are entitled to recover about $158 million from the federal government for an offshore oil-and-gas deal that never materialized. The justices voted 8-1 in a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the government by Mobil and Marathon stemming from their ill-fated attempt to explore for oil and gas off North Carolina's Outer Banks.
REDISTRICTING:_ The court agreed to use a voting-rights dispute over a North Carolina congressional district, possibly to try clarifying how to determine when race played too large a role in drawing election districts. The court said it will study an appeal in which state officials argue that politics _ not race _ was the main factor in drawing the 12th congressional district.
TRAFFIC ARRESTS: Setting the stage for a ruling that could affect America's 185 million licensed drivers, the court said it will decide whether people can be arrested for traffic violations punishable only by a fine. The justices agreed to study the appeal of a Texas woman who was arrested, handcuffed and jailed because she and her two children did not use seat belts while riding in the family pickup truck.
TAPED CALL: The court agreed to decide whether people can be sued for disclosing the contents of telephone calls illegally intercepted and recorded by someone else. Setting the stage for a free-speech ruling with particular significance for news organizations, the court said it will use a Pennsylvania case to judge the validity of federal and state wiretapping laws that impose such liability.
(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APTV 06-26-00 0926MDT
