Press-Telegram from Long Beach, California • 32

iV- -p 7: J-: r-T T- 1 -H VV a a 1 a a Aa IlM -C- -4 i -1 t5 jIL -TJ-X-l deem THn5WffAr blDB-AND-GO-5fK A look-food- in -The decision holding ihat reporters have tion PowelLyoukMJHffdeiLPt proof headlines that the Supreme Court has this 'death penalty as it Is now ad-United Jmebut limited step ought ministered- lq-the United States neverthev welcome less this we not to deflect attention from the rest of what the Supreme Court unfprtunateiy did last week ThTaurritgnlficaHUmitBdireedonr of the press ior one thing and for another put a rather effective choker on the con-rv gressional -hannels-by-which-the- public- might learn some things the executive branch does not want it to know The cuv Emulative effect of these decisions might well: be more important than the death 7 penalty ruling except of course for the 1 600Kdd persons on variouufeath rows who may not now be executed Press-Telegram First Amendment right to protect their confidential sources might appear to be Tom Wicker NEW YORK TINES NEWSSERVICE equally ambiguous since Mr Justice Powell for the majority did point out that any even a could move in court to quash a subpoena requiring him to testify This is slight if not useless compensa- 1 Editor Editor iaT Page Sterling Bemis Associate Editor A Collins Sr-Editorial Columnid check 604 Pine Avenue 90801 1 Herman Ridder 1952-1969 Daniel Ridder Editor and Publisher Samuel Cameron General Manager -Mies' Editor' LaftV Allison Managing Editor Bert Resnik-Assistant Managing Editor Bernard Ridder Jr Business Manager Don Nutter Advertising Director Morrissey Circulation Director B-2 LONG BEACH-CALIFORNIA THURSDAY JULY 6 1972 court imposes its not an unreasonable request for the world champion to make to a challenger who refused to play except on hisowp terms Bk-Spissky-r It' least M5S0- With its In the capital Court cleavage that from the new Editorials in For awhile it was not hard to' tell the good guy from the bad guy ui Reykjavik Iceland The bad guy was not there championship- Arid 'Spassky who managed to seem a perfect 1 gentleman until Fischer arrived has turned out jto suffer from a touch of Fischerism himself- WHILE FISCHER was boasting last month that he would win arid was accusing the- Russians of plot- ting to deprive" him of the title by -iTholdirigthe games in Icelandf 'Spas- sky Avar gently praising the Brooklyn high school dropout as retnarka-ble phess player ky said the wprld of chess' Spassky even went -so farads to 7 defend Fischer against charges of an overriding interest ip making money 1from chess 7 Spassky abandoned that defense who after Fischer refused to go to Iceland until a banker doubled the prize money Then Spassky added some de- rnaiids ofiiis own One was that -Fischer apologize his unseemly behavior That is ffor I on the reporter to show that his appear a nee would have only a and tenuous" connection1' to the investigation! which would be practically impossible and further burden him with showing that the government had no need" for his-iestimony-As-mattare stood Jwfora the decision the government itself had to show a- quite a JqgtiiBrepc)rtertotestjfyJLberesisteda subpbqna THE COURT also-decided that Sen Mike Gravel could be questioned by grand jury as to-the source of the copy of the Papers" that he helped make public Mr Justice Brennan pointed out in dissent that the ruling meant that the function" of a member of Congress had been deemed not part of the legislative responsibility clearly protected by the Constitution in tumr means that members of -Congress now will think twice before re- leasing classified information to the public members have frequently done usually with the ihsult that the public finds out something the government has been trying: to hide througfi'the' classification system if a grand jury can haul in a senator to question him about Ms sources of information both those sources and the sena- tor's willingness to use them soon will dis- appear But the nation's press and its legislators -both restricted by these do not exist only for themselves theynrepresent the American' people in certain vital functions the people cannot perform individually Thus it was really the rights that wen curtailed by these decisions which is the way things go nowadays explosion of opinions last week punishment casein the Supreme laid ban the gnat line of divides the old Warren court Nixon eouii It is the line poses the court voted 54 to prohibit the James KUpatricU lmPOSitioB of death sentences under exist- sentences ihust be commuted for some 800 prisoners across the nation Otherwise the impact 4tfH he small There fo nd convincing evidence that the meie erisfonco( '4imerni heinous cribiu So £au: as law And order Is concerned the Sun will come up in the-morning as Mood-red as it set last night The significance of this landmark case lies in its exposition of the fundamental division between those who believe in judicial activism and those who believe in ju-jdidal restraint The activists on the court led in this case by Justice Thurgood Marshall believe it pfoper to rest decisions uponjtheir own subjective readings of what" is unacceptablo" or-" shocking to the conscience" The defendns of restraint Blackmun Powell and Rehnquist that viewpoint altogether long concurring opinion is a classic statement of the activist position It is Immaterial in this view that the framers of the Eighth Amendment never intended that and unusual punish- Tens of thousands ot car buyers are still waiting for thosa tax rriundiJhaLDstraif? promised right away on their new can MilUpds of dollars re- main unpaid An outpouring of angry letters and Impatient phone calls have failed to move the mogulsof Motor City" to1 open upttheiz purser After tiie tax hill was signed into law last December the buyers began to expect the $30Or-so rebate they had coming un- dor law and had been promised by auto company advertising But months later Ford and to a lesser extent American ton were still fiddling while their customers burned Typical was the experience of Sydney Kronish of North Miami Beach He bought shiny new Caprice' on Aug 17 1971 and got a note from GM in early 1971 promising a check to three weeks Krofosh waited for two months Then he wrote GM but never heard hack He phoned tax refund officials in Detroit and was promised a refund that week But still no money arrived On May 8 he called Detroit a second time and again he got promise of an Immediate refubd On May 17 there was still no money and he took to the telephone again But he got jjowhere Acompumentyia theJreeway that the first game be declared forfeited to -Spassky and with a formal complaint attacking both Fischer and Dr Max Euwe the Netherlands grand master who is president of the international Chess Federation ANYONE CAN understand the high tensions involved in an extraordi- nayy tosf of minH snH prytoran between the two greatest jiying plaf ers of the most difficult board game Western -civilization had known The' results are not pleasarit to observe HMtoe -rjapieciafel merit ridiyvlo but to the jnAlI that saved it from -United being diter for both in world public opinion wars' the sudden intransigence of the Soviets Let us trust that soon all the bickering will be put aside so the at- tention of Spassky Fischer and the world can be focused on the gentler warfare of pawns kriiglits bishops rooks kings aridqueens on the checkered board kthfi state average And theTrigfir' drop 41 per cent ju io hit aTefag Al C' Estep a state highway en-gineer explained the drop in fatalities as due to improvement of roads addition of more miles of freeway and improvementTnndrivingr: The last point is where' the com-to Southern Californians pimT ramp IT really believe That people are better drivers oh free- waysl Estep told -the Bee reporter moire people drive on freeways the more they realize the im-portanceof courtesy I think LA freewaydrivers are probabiy the world's best As people in Sacramen- to are becoming more used to them they are getting better The fart that true make the comment -any less or less welcome 1 Comments THE GREATEST show on earth nature at workin thespring! A A- PLAN YOUR Vacaticm now and bo aura 7- a 7 ment" should exclude the death penalty It is immaterial that an unbroken line of judicial one of them only a year has supported the constitutionality of capital punishment It is immaterial that ll yeamkm- four ipei within the past constitutional powers What then la material? It is personal assessment that counts He states it with breathtaking certainty Capital punishment be says is unconstitutional it is morally unacceptable to the people of the United States at this time in their history' FARTHER ALONG Marshall says: J1 Assuming knowledge of -all the facta pres-mUyavailablL regarding cafotaL punish- ment-" the average citizen Jvould in my opinion find it shocking to Ms conscience and sense ofjustice For this reason alone capital punishment cannot stand" afnhe wd'cmzenS' vfould £0hddawrvr basfoof the -Still eved thatihh death penalty'll immoral and therefore unconatitutioiiaL" To the four dissenters these are wholly extraneous considerations Both Burger and Blackmun went-to pains to -say that if their own personal opinions were decisive they would vote to abolish cafotalpuntoh- ment But constitutional questions ought not to be resolved upon a opinion of what average citizen" Or great mass oj citizens" might regard as shocking or immoral Such a view converts the Supreme Court into a legislative body it permits a majority of five to impose their own naked will upon our fundamental law It seems to me that liberals no' less than conservatives should protest the activist concept For the past 20 years to be -lure setivism has worked to the permitted the auto makers instead to delay Jef unding the inoney 1- Consumer advocate: Ralph Nader has complained to Sedate Finance Chairman Russell tong JLa and House Ways and Means "Chairman Wilbur Mills D-Ark Detroit's Big Four all ad -Mitted to my reporter Mark McIntyre that refunds were outstanding six months after went into effectThey blamed It on- MERRY-GO-ROUND Jmek dadariM resold ears bad addresses buyers moving and failures to return refund forms letters and our qwn spot checks how-i eve indicate the cause for the delays was more the fault of the auto firms and the Treasury Department -1 trial lawyers are fighting fu- riously against no-fault insurance which would cost foem 11 billion a year to auto accident and ambulance chasing fees Under the no-fault bill now awaiting bepaid Segate action policyhAlders would casei that have fattened the bank'accounts- of trial lawyers The prospect of losing all this business has got some lawyers screaming like fish-' wives For instance1" tile distinguished chairman of the American Trial 'Legislative Section Howard McKisdqk 5- seiemvirnportarit to pass along a few Sacramento Bee arti-- we found iri a "A JUSTICE THURGOtiD MARSHALL advantage They have found it agreeable' But if liberals accept in principle the pow- of judges to make sweeping changes 0B Mtiaos moral ability liberals win he hard put to object' when the composition of the court change and the wind shifts Many persons who abhor the dfeaft penalty and agree that capital punishment ius been imposed Irrationally and ineffectually in the past will rejoice in whaL the five activists have doneBut those who love the law and believe in the separatfejv of powers will emphatically condemn the way In which they did It- McKissick who doubles a state legfr lator ln: Ms native Nevada let loose these1 expletives in a letter to Nevada Iniurancn Commissioner Richard Rottman McKissick singled out for attack Lynn7 Sutcliffe a hard-worEng Senate aidewho specializes in insurance I just fathom' how a madmiu-could havecapK such- axLynn Sutcliffe tured the thoughts of (Senate Commerce Chairman Warren Magnuson fo get (the MU) reported out" wrote-McKissick scathingly ALTHOUGH THE BILL was faL by such distinguished senators as jl- Hart D-Mich Frank Moss D-Utah and Magnuson McKissick Called it bastard ly thing some kind of Communist Coi1 r'? He added sourly: have read the thing five times and still grasp it" As -part of Ms campaign against no- fault McKissick is also circulating" the' pro-written letters for his fellow trial lawyer to recopy and mail to senators One letter has been prepared for than close contacts or dose friends of the sens- tor" another letter for lawyers whose letter be much more knowledgeable and much more reached McKissick to Reno and told" tube too he pleadedrJilt'was ntisap- propria to call Mm- 1 Sutcliffe a man 1 jneaqt only that he la a ihad Then MCKissick tried another give you a weekend at Caesars Palace or the Dunes We can talk it over when you Jde the other day 1 Not oniy-were they kind but they were on'a -subject whore few of --osreven-have-kind-wordsto-say-fQr- ourselves Theubiect'iOreewayrarid free- way drivingIt Jurtis outthat al- though the traffic is lighter on freer mento the danger is greater 7 In-fart it was only last year that' t-the highway death rate in and 10 nearby counfies propped 1 4 SWgETYOUNG prar-i for the bunting ONE WAY to plana twedty years NO COMMUNITY develop when itv-pfeeplr ww mu -mi mini hub auu phone Detroit ButGM even ignored its own dealer Finally Kronish wrote Chevrolet's general manager: going on Mr General 7 A fewdaya after sending copies of his letter to ua and Ralph Nader Kronish got wui grow aiw uevei tii six months late -V are envious of each 0th- I The Treasury Department which is aup-J posed to oversee the exdse tax rebate has things are noy leason! prolong life to to make ahead will grow and ar baetardly and one of its authors a "madman get to Las Vegas he Offered We declined the invitation A' 7 (-n 9.