The Battalion
Iq\. 82 No. 169 GSPS 045360 6 pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, July 1, 1986
Supreme Court upholds state sodomy law
Texas man challenges court ruling
■ DALLAS (AP) — The plaintiff
in a case challenging Texas’ so
domy law said Monday that a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling upholding
a similar Georgia statute poses a
threat to the privacy of heterosex
uals, as well as homosexuals.
But a district attorney who
took up Texas’ appeal after At
torney General Jim Mattox
dropped out of the case called the
high court’s decision “a great day
for Georgia, the people of Texas
and anyone else who believes in
states’ rights.”
Donald F. Baker, who filed suit
in 1979 claiming the Texas law
threatened his teaching job, said
the hopes of the gay community
“are dimmed, but not totally out.”
“I guess we (the T exas case) are
the last hope . . . that we will ever
be treated equally,” Baker said of
his appeal.
Potter County District Attor
ney Danny Hill, who is handling
Texas’ case in Baker’s suit, said
the high court was upholding the
rights of the individual states to
regulate such areas as sexual con
duct.
But the ruling was assailed by
the Texas Civil Liberties Union.
“This decision permits states to
make criminals of millions of
Americans and assaults the centu
ries-old principle of privacy in the
home,” said TCLU Executive Di
rector Gara LaMarche. “It en
courages hypocrisy . . . What con
senting adults do in the privacy of
their bedrooms ought to be none
of the government’s business.”
; WASHINGTON (AP) — The Su-
jreme Court, upholding a Georgia
lodomy law by a 5-4 vote, ruled
Monday that consenting adults have
10 constitutional right to private ho-
nosexual conduct.
The ruling was limited to “consen
sual homosexual sodomy.” But noth
ing in its sweeping language cast
doubt on the constitutionality of
state laws that also make heterosex
ual sodomy a crime, even when per
formed by married couples.
"The proposition that any kind of
private sexual conduct between con
senting adults is constitutionally in
sulated from state proscription is un-
supportable,” Justice Byron R.
White wrote for the court.
The Georgia law, which White
said is similar to those in half the
states, defines sodomy as “any sexual
act involving the sex organs of one
person and the mouth or anus of an
other."
The court refused to recognize
private homosexual conduct as a
“fundamental right” deserving of
the Constitution’s fullest protection.
The court ruled previously that
decisions to marry, have children,
practice birth control or have an
abortion are such fundamental
rights.
“We think it evident that none of
the rights announced in those cases
bear any resemblance to the claimed
constitutional right of homosexuals
to engage in acts of sodomy,” White
said.
The Georgia law was challenged
by Michael Hardwick, an Atlanta
bartender and homosexual who was
arrested in 1982 for allegedly com
mitting sodomy in his home. He
never has been prosecuted under
the law, which carries a maximum
penalty of 20 years in prison.
T he arresting officer had gone to
Hardwick’s home to issue a warrant
in another case and was told he
could find him in his bedroom.
Hardwick sued Georgia officials
in 1983, seeking to have the law de
clared unconstitutional. He had won
in the 1 1th U.S. Gircuit Court of Ap
peals, but that ruling was reversed
Monday.
“Plainly enough, otherwise illegal
conduct is not always immunized
whenever it occurs in the home,”
White said. “It would be difficult . . .
to limit the claimed right of homo
sexual conduct while leaving ex
posed to prosecution adultery, incest
and other sexual crimes even though
they are committed in the home.”
T he court swept aside arguments
that the Georgia law has no rational
basis without explicitly ruling that it
is rational.
“Law is constantly based on no
tions of morality,” White said, “and
if all laws representing essentially
moral choices are to be invalidated . .
the courts will be very busy in
deed.”
White was joined by Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger and Justices Le
wis F. Powell, William H. Rehnquist
and Sandra Day O’Connor.
Powell wrote separately that the
heavy penalty attached to violations
of the state’s sodomy law could rep
resent unconstitutional “cruel and
unusual punishment” because it is
the same punishment meted out to
convicted arsonists and robbers.
Justices Harry A. Blackmun, Wil
liam J. Brennan, Thurgood Mar
shall and John Paul Stevens dis
sented.
Writing for the four, Blackmun
called the decision “revolting.”
“This case is about the most com
prehensive of rights and the right
most valued by civilized men,
namely the right to be let alone,” he
said.
Labor federation
warns South Africa
of possible strike
It Gets Your Goat
College Station’s long, hot summer has set in and even affects this An
gora goat, which can’t decide to ponder life’s mysteries (left) or just
Photos by Tom Own bey
sleep on it (right). The Texas A&M Sheep and Goat Center houses
the goats which are bred in an effort to produce improved mohair.
Judge OKs plan to restrict inmate mail
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal
judge Monday approved a contro
versial plan that allows the Texas
Department of Corrections to re
strict inmate-to-inmate mail in an ef
fort to curb violence.
The out-of-court settlement ap
proved by Chief District Judge John
B. Singleton allows TDC to suspend
mail privileges to inmates who abuse
it. Assistant Attorney General S.
:ott McCown, representing TDC,
id the proposal could go into effect
ithin a few weeks.
TDC officials contended that in
mates have been able to recruit, or
ganize and plan assaults and mur
ders through the mail. More control
over inmate mail will help decrease
gang violence, they said.
TTae settlement affects two long-
running prisoner lawsuits: one in
which Singleton upheld prisoners’
rights to receive mail and one that
led to the sweeping reform order by
U.S. District Judge William Wayne
Justice.
The court approval of the mail
plan came while Justice was hearing
more testimony in another Houston
federal court concerning inmate al
legations that TDC has failed to
meet the court-ordered reforms.
For more than a week, inmates,
TDC officials and prison experts
have testified before Justice request
ing that the Texas prison system be
found in contempt and fined for vio
lating court orders.
James Park, a retired official with
the California Department of Cor
rections, testified Monday that the
Texas officials could reduce vio
lence, theft and other abuse by in
mates by placing guards within
prison living areas.
Park testified that a lack of guards
increases the chances that inmates
will be victimizied — especially at
night.
An inadequate staff in inmate liv
ing areas is one of several complaints
by inmates’ attorneys that has
brought the TDC back into federal
court.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
(AP) — The nation’s largest black la
bor federation warned Monday that
the detention of its president could
provoke spontaneous protest strikes
across South Africa.
In other developments:
• The government said eight
more blacks were killed in unrest,
raising the toll to 93 since the gov
ernment declared a national state of
emergency June 12. Three victims
died in clashes Sunday between mili
tants and supporters of moderate
black Zulu leader Chief Mangosuthu
Bythelezi in Soweto, Johannesburg’s
huge black township.
• The government ordered the
deportation of West German tele
vision correspondent Heinrich Buet-
tgen, the fourth foreign journalist
told to leave during the emergency.
The Congress of South Africa
Trade Unions, which claims about
500,000 members, said the deten
tion of its president Friday night was
“further proof of a direct and con
certed assault on trade union free
dom in South Africa.”
The federation noted that thou
sands of workers already had staged
wildcat strikes at about 100 chain-
store branches during the emer
gency to protest the seizure of union
officials and shop stewards. The ar
rest without charge of the union
chief “could spark widespread and
spontaneous worker reaction
around the country,” the congress
said in a statement.
The name of the detained union
leader, a longtime anti-apartheid
campaigner, may not be disclosed
under press restrictions imposed as
part of the emergency proclamation.
The federation said detention of
labor leaders would be discussed
Tuesday at an executive committee
meeting.
Hundreds of activists, including
most of the 40 executive members,
have been in hiding to evade deten
tion.
The federation’s general secre
tary, Jay Naidoo, said in a clandes
tine interview last week that the ex
ecutive members would meet openly
Tuesday, in a direct challenge to the
white-led government to allow free
union activity.
But spokesman Frank Meintjies
said on Monday that the meeting site
would not be disclosed, lest more ar
rests follow.
Reports from labor federations in
Britain and Switzerland on Sunday
said that Naidoo likely had been de
tained, but Meintjies said that Nai
doo was free, but in hiding, and
planned to attend the executive
meeting.
Meintjies told The Associated
Press that the president was picked
up at his home in Carltonville, a
mining town west of Johannesburg.
The union chief, the most senior la
bor leader jailed without trial during
the emergency, is also vice president
of the 250,000-member black Na
tional Union of Mineworkers.
The Labor Monitoring Group, an
independent team of academics, said
Saturday at least 923 union mem
bers were known to be in detention.
It said 740 more workers were ar
rested while striking dairy plants to
protest earlier detentions.
The Bureau for Information has
said no union leaders were held for
labor activities, but because of in
volvement in anti-government activ
ities.
White business executives joined
unions in asking that labor leaders
be released, saying detentions and
resulting strikes threaten chaos in in
dustry.
NASA HQ to control
space station project
Soviet SALT II proposal
treated with skepticism
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
ace agency on Monday began
e internal restructuring recom-
nended by a presidential com-
nission, announcing that its
leadquarters will take charge of
milding the space station rather
han letting individual centers
un their own segmented fief-
loms.
“This is the first step in the re-
ilignment of the management
tructure,” said James C.
'letcher, NASA’s administrator,
ndicating that more shakeups
re to follow.
“Bringing this function to
leadquarters will require the
novement of a substantial num-
•er of NASA personnel to head-
[uarters and in addition will re-
[uire the services of a systems
ngineering contractor in some
^ays similar to the way the Apollo
program was managed,” Fletcher
said.
The Apollo program, which
resulted in six moon landings,
was run from Washington by a
strong director, Maj. Gen. Sam
uel C. Phillips, who now heads a
committee to assess NASA’s over
all capabilities and requirements.
The streamlining of space station
management was his first recom
mendation.
At a news conference, Fletcher
declined to discuss the possibility
that the United States wall lease a
privately built replacement for
the space shuttle Challenger.
Such a proposal reportedly has
aroused the interest of high ad
ministration officials.
Contracts for various aspects of
the space station have been the
responsibility of four NASA cen
ters: the Marshall Space Flight
Center in Alabama, the Johnson
Space Center in Houston, the
Goddard Space Center in
Maryland and Lewis Research
Center in Cleveland.
Project managers at those cen
ters will now report to a new asso
ciate administrator, Andrew J.
Stofan, whose appointment was
announced by Fletcher. Stofan
has been director of the Lewis
center since 1982.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Soviet
proposal for a special superpower
meeting on the future of a 1979 nu
clear arms control treaty drew a
chilly response Monday from U.S.
officials who regard it as a propa
ganda opportunity for the Russians.
President Reagan, boarding Air
Force One in California to return
here from vacation, quipped: “Too
much salt isn’t good for you.”
He tentatively decided in May to
abandon the second Strategic Arms
Limitation Treaty, SALT II, signed
in 1979 but never ratified by the
Senate.
Reagan’s joshing reference to
SALT II typified the skeptical, in
formal response within the adminis
tration to the Soviet proposal for a
special meeting next month in Ge
neva on the treaty Reagan has tenati-
vely decided to abandon.
“A lot of people are not thrilled
(by the Soviet proposal),” said a U.S.
official, referring primarily to Penta
gon officials.
Through diplomatic channels, the
Soviets last week called for a session
of the Standing Consultative Com
mission (SCC), established under the
1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty as
a mechanism for dealing quietly with
allegations of violations on both
sides.
The United States asked for such
a meeting in 1983 to discuss the
early warning radar the Soviets were
constructing at Krasnoyarsk in Sibe
ria.
The request was turned down. In
two reports to Congress, Reagan
subsequently charged that the radar
flouts the 1972 treaty.
Paul Warnke, the chief U.S. nego
tiator on the SALT II treaty, said the
administration should take advan
tage of the Soviet request for a meet
ing of the special commission.
“It definitely ought to be picked
up,” he said in an interview.
“There’s no question we have not
made proper use of the SCC.”
Warnke said that before Reagan
took office in 1981, the commission
resolved several serious questions
growing out the 1972 and 1979
SALT treaties as well as the anti-bal
listic missile accord.
Warnke said Gen. Richard Ellis,
who heads the U.S. delegation, “has
been badly handicapped by lack of
instructions.”
Last month, Reagan announced
that he w'ould scrap two aging nu
clear submarines, thus remaining
within the provisions of SALT II,
but said that unless Moscow obeyed
the pact, he would order more B-52
bombers equipped with nuclear-
tipped cruise missiles, exceeding the
treaty’s limitations on warheads.
Reagan claimed that the Russians
violated SALT II by deploying SS-25
intercontinental ballistic missiles and
by encoding signals during missile
tests.
The Soviets have denied the
charges.
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes, traveling with Reagan, told
reporters aboard Air Force One that
the administration had not replied
to the Soviet request “and we have
not decided what to do.”
In a related development, Soviet
leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev accused
the United States of sabotaging arms
control efforts by ignoring Soviet
proposals.
Eller named
as interim
chancellor
University News Service
Texas A&M Board of Regents
Chairman David G. Eller will as
sume responsibilities as interim
chancellor until a successor is
found for former Chancellor Ar
thur G. Hansen.
Hansen formally retired Mon
day.
Eller, a Houston entrepreneur,
said his duties primarily will in
volve signing documents which
require authorization by the
chancellor and carrying out other
functions that are outside the
realm of day-to-day activities.
He said he and fellow regents
thought it inappropriate to name
a member of the TAMUS staff as
interim chancellor in light of the
large number of individuals
within the system being consid
ered for the chancellorship.
Eller said the search is continu
ing in an “orderly and deliberate
manner.”