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* Originally from ACLU Newsfeed Owner (1:382/87) to terry liberty-parker 
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* Original dated: Tue Feb 04, 11:36
From: ACLU Newsfeed Owner 
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02-04-97
ACLU Newsfeed -- ACLU News Direct to YOU
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TODAY'S NEWS:
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* Justice Scalia Defends 'Literalness' of Constitution
* Requiring Photo Identification for Voters Called Unconstitutional in
Michigan
* Medical Journal Assails Clinton Stand on Marijuana
* Florida Judge Grants Aid-in-Dying Request
* Fired Colorado Teacher Wins Appeal
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Justice Scalia Defends 'Literalness' of Constitution
LOS ANGELES -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, speaking here recently,
vigorously defended his belief that the Constitution should be interpreted
literally, the Los Angeles Times reports.
In an address to 900 people at a packed ballroom in a downtown Los Angeles
hotel, the Times said that Scalia blasted those who seek to read new rights
-- such as reproductive freedom -- in the Constitution. He said that such an
"evolutionist" approach to constitutional interpretation strips the document
of the "immovable" power it should have in a democracy.
The Times reported that Justice Scalia decried the growth of the
"evolutionist" approach over the last 40 years. "When I was a young man and
you got mad, people pounded the table and said, 'There ought to be a law,'"
said Scalia. "I haven't heard that in years. Now when people get mad they
say, 'It's unconstitutional.'''
Scalia lashed out in particular, the Times said, at decisions that have
broadened the scope of the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual
punishment. In a sarcastic tone, he twice repeated words from one of those
decisions, which declared that the meaning of cruel and unusual punishment
has changed due to "evolving standards that reflect a maturing society."
ACLU Legal Director Steve Shapiro, commenting on the Times report, said that
"Justice Scalia prefers to think of the Constitution as an 18th century
fossil that can never change.
"The 18th century framers, however, never took that view and saw the
Constitution as a living document that must evolve over time," Shapiro said.
"Justice Scalia's quarrel is not with modern revisionists, but with a
constitutional tradition that is almost two centuries old."
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Requiring Photo Identification for Voters Called Unconstitutional in Michigan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 4, 1997
DETROIT -- The ACLU of Michigan has urged Governor John Engler to let stand a
 recent ruling by the state's attorney general that a plan to require voters
to produce photo identification would create an unconstitutional barrier to
the people's access to the ballot.
"The right to vote is fundamental," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of
the ACLU of Michigan. "State officials should work to increase access to
voting, not restrict it. Only one other state in the nation, Hawaii, has
required photo identification to vote.
"Michigan's chief election officer, Secretary of State Candice Miller, has
said publicly that there is no fraud problem," Simon added. "That, combined
with Attorney General's  opinion, should end the matter. The law is dead; the
governor should let it rest in peace."
Local Michigan election clerks have echoed Miller's assertion that there is
no fraud problem, and worry that implementing the law would create longer
lines and confusion at the polls. "To me, this will cause larger lines and
make people upset," said Michigan Association of Clerks Vice President Mary
McCrary.
"In the absence of a showing of substantial voter fraud in Michigan," Kelley
said in his opinion, "this restriction on the fundamental right to vote is
not necessary to further a compelling state interest.
"For the poor, those who do not drive, especially the elderly, the
handicapped and those who, for whatever reason, do not possess a picture
identification card, this requirement imposes economic and logistical
burdens," Kelley added. "If they do not obtain the picture identification
card or sign the affidavit, they are denied the right to vote even though
they are otherwise qualified to vote."
In another voting rights case, Governor Engler is appealing a federal judge's
ruling that Michigan must comply with federal laws making voter registration
more widely available through state agency offices, including offices where
people apply for and receive assistance. Arguments in that appeal were
scheduled for February 3 in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnatti. The
ACLU and the U.S. Justice Department will defend implementation of the motor
voter law.
"If the governor challenges today's ruling by the attorney general, the ACLU
will help defend the ruling that the photo identification bill is
unconstitutional," Simon said.
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Medical Journal Assails Clinton Stand on Marijuana
Attacking the federal government's threat to crack down on California doctors
who recommend marijuana to sick patients, a leading medical journal said
recently that the policy was "foolish," "hypocritical" and "inhumane."
In a front-page report, the Los Angeles Times said that an editorial in the
New England Medical Journal of Medicine represented a dramatic endorsement by
a respected mainstream medical authority of marijuana's clinical merits. In
contrast, the paper said, the American Medical Association has urged doctors
not to recommend that patients smoke marijuana because the practice goes
against federal law.
In the editorial, Dr. Jerome Kassirer, the editor-in-chief of the medical
journal, said that the central conflict "is between the rights of those at
death's door and the absolute power of bureaucrats whose decisions are based
more on reflexive ideology and political correctness than on compassion."
Meanwhile, the Times said, nine doctors released a review of published
studies on marijuana's use in the treatment of AIDS, cancer and other
illnesses. The group said it found 75 studies since 1970 that discovered a
medical benefit.
Commenting on the Times report, ACLU Director of Public Education Loren
Siegel said: "Finally, thanks to pressure from the public and important
elements of the medical community, the government is being forced to confront
the absurdity of its inflexible opposition to medical marijuana."
"Hopefully, this exposure of the limits of absolute prohibition will lead to
a wider -- and saner -- discussion of national drug policy," she added.
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Florida Judge Grants Aid-in-Dying Request
WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- A Florida judge ruled last week that a man dying of
AIDS has the right to end his life with the help of a doctor, the Associated
Press reports.
Circuit Judge Joseph Davis said his ruling applies only to 35-year-old
Charles Hall, the lone survivor in a lawsuit seeking the right to have a
doctor prescribe him a lethal dose of drugs without interference from the
state.
Nonetheless, proponents of physician-assisted suicide said the ruling -- the
first by any state judge in the nation -- would have a significant impact in
other states.
"I would characterize this decision as potentially one of great national
importance,'' Andy Kayton, legal director for the ACLU in Florida, told the
news service.   
In his ruling, Judge Davis wrote that Hall "has a constitutional right to
decide to terminate his suffering and determine the time and manner of his
death." 
"As an individual and a physician, he can determine his own ethical,
religious, and moral beliefs in declining or agreeing to assist,'' Davis
said. ``Like Mr. Hall, he has the freedom of choice.''
The state told AP that it will appeal, which would automatically stay the
decision. The state has argued that doctor-assisted suicide is manslaughter,
punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Oregon is the only state with a law allowing physician-assisted suicide, but
the measure -- passed by voters in 1994 -- has not taken effect because a
federal judge ruled it unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is considering
challenges to assisted-suicide bans in New York and Washington state.
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Fired Colorado Teacher Wins Appeal
DENVER -- A teacher who was fired partly for showing his students a
controversial film by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci has been ordered
reinstated by the Colorado Court of Appeals.
According to a report in the Denver Post, the court said that the Jefferson
County School District did not give teacher Al Wilder clear prior notice of
policies he was to follow in showing such films, so that the firing violated
his First Amendment right to to choose how to teach his course, a senior
Debate and Logic class.
The court said that it wasn't extending "blanket constitutional protection"
to teachers to choose any materials they like, the Post said. "School
officials may properly exercise control over school-sponsored expression as
long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical
concerns," wrote Appeals Judge Daniel M. Taubman in a 3-to-0 decision.
But school boards cannot regulate the showing movies such as 1900 "in the
absence of clear prior notice that such action is prohibited," and Wilder did
not get that, the court said.
Commenting on the decision, ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein
said the court "flatly rejected the school board's argument that high school
teachers had no First Amendment rights whatsoever."
"By restoring Al Wilder's job and rejecting the school board's extremist
position, the court delivered an encouraging victory for academic freedom and
the First Amendment," Silverstein said.
During an eight-day administrative hearing in the Spring of 1996, an ACLU
cooperating attorney served as co-counsel for Wilder along with an attorney
from the Colorado Education Association. The ACLU filed an amicus brief in
the appellate court.
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