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Court pauses to remember victims
©Washington Post, WASHINGTON -- On most days, the Supreme Court is a model of efficient decorum, adhering to a crisp, well-established procedure for the conduct of oral arguments. As attorneys rise to speak at the brisk prompting of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, there are few wasted words and little room for emotional display; the ritual seems designed to emphasize the court's judicious separation from the passions that often reign outside its white marble walls. But Monday, at the court's first public session since Sept. 11, Rehnquist made a rare departure from the script, asking the courtroom to observe a moment of silence in remembrance of the disasters wrought by terrorists in Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania. "Our hearts go out to the families of the killed and injured," Rehnquist said. "In the aftermath of the attacks, we have witnessed extraordinary bravery and compassion from Americans from all walks of life. " Rehnquist made special mention of Barbara Olson, a passenger on the plane that hijackers crashed into the Pentagon. Her husband, U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, sat near the front of the room, brushing away tears. Olson was accompanied by two predecessors, Seth Waxman and Kenneth Starr, the former Whitewater independent counsel. With the president and Congress assigned responsibility by the Constitution for federal law enforcement and foreign policy, the court so far has had little direct role in the crisis. It may yet be called upon to play a part, perhaps by ruling on the constitutionality of President Bush's plan to give more latitude to law enforcement to detain and monitor terrorism suspects. As it happens, the court issued rulings Monday in three cases that have been pending for months but that touch on issues that have acquired new relevance in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. TERRY NICHOLS: It denied a request for a new appeal hearing by convicted Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols, co-author with Timothy McVeigh of what used to be the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. Nichols had claimed FBI failure to disclose documents had tainted his trial. RACIAL PROFILING: The justices rejected an appeal from blacks in Oneonta, N.Y., who said police unconstitutionally targeted them because of their race. The case was unrelated to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, in which young Arab men were the suspected killers, but would have given the court an opportunity to rule on the law enforcement practice of racial profiling. MUSLIM RIGHTS: The court turned down an appeal from a Muslim rental car agent who said her boss violated her civil rights by pressuring her to stop wearing a traditional hair scarf at her airport job. The case predates the terrorist attacks. Many Muslims have complained that their dress or appearance has elicited harassment or worse since Sept. 11. SCIENTOLOGY: The court refused to reinstate a Church of Scientology libel case over an award-winning Time magazine article portraying the religion as a greedy cult. Time Warner Inc. had steadfastly defended the 10-page article and said it refused to be "intimidated by the church's apparently limitless legal resources." The church contended that the writer was biased and only interviewed critics. As usual, all the appeals were denied without comment from the court or recorded dissent. Monday's hearing took place amid visibly revamped security procedures. For the first time, members of the Supreme Court press corps were required to pass through a metal detector. The Bush administration has announced that $1.25-million of the $40-billion antiterrorism emergency fund approved by Congress will pay for a new protective film to prevent windows at the court from shattering and causing injuries in a bomb blast. - Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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