Review Set on Key Part of Voting Act (The Washington Post)

    May 1, 19 85

Lonnie

Here is the article
of today.

It was good talking
call you again soon.

that we

to you.

spoke

will

Fonp1y,



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Review Set

On IGy hrt
Of Voting Act
High Court Accepts
lVorth C,arolina C,ase

By Al IGmr
Srtigachla9rf fr.!r

- Tlre Srprenre Crurt, acting at
the urging of the Reagan adninis-
tration, yesterday agreed for the
qr.t t!re to review a key pati<rn of
ttre Voting Rights Act that gives
miruitie's the right to drallenge
ehction results that do not reflit
thejr numbers on tlre voting rolls.

The justices, in a case invoMng
seven state House and Senate dis-
tricts in North Carolina, agreed to
hear North Carolina's arguments
that a lower court misinterpreted
1982 ameodspnts to the 1965 law.

The state, joined by U.S. Solic-
itor Germal Rex E" Lee, asked the
iusties to &termine whether the
lar actrutly grarantees'safe, seats
to minlie.r The court also agreed
to @siler trow hwerourt judges
shdrld deftte raid bloc voiing, a
necessary frtor in triggering the

act's provisions Civil rights advo
cates worried yesterday that the
court may use tlre case to narrow
signiftantly what they thought they
won when Congress passed the
1982law.

'We are very concerned that the
Reagan appointees in the Justice
Department, all of whom opposed
the arnendrnent, may seize this op
portunity to try to persuade the
court to gut the Voting Rights Act,,
said lani Guinier, an attorney with
the NMCP Legal Defense and Ed-
ucational Fund Inc.

The departnrent argued that the
North Carolina court misread the
1982 law to require'guaranteed
electaal success in proportbn to
llre blad( percentage of the popt
lation.'The case, to be argued- next
tall, is Thornktrg t Gingb*

The justices, without cqnrnent,
dectined yesterday to h6ar an ap
peal by forrner labor secretary Rai-
mond J. Donovan, who argued that
a special federal ourt improperly
gave New York prosecutors federal
grand jury docurnents that appar-
ently were later used to indict him
9n grand larceny and fraud charges
Donovan has denird the chargei

Ttre documents were developed
during a related 1982 investigaiion
by specid prmecutor Leon Silver-
rnan into allegatirns tiat Dqrovan
had tbs to organized crinre. Sitver-
rnan corrcluded there was "in$fi
cient credible evidence' to warrant
prmecution.

Prosecutors for Broox District
Attorney Mario Merola obtained
the federal docunsrts and testinro
ny from the special federal court.
Donovan, who resigned March lS,
wes indhed in September in con-
mctirn with a $lg6 millbo New
York suhray proitrt. .

In other ectiqi tte court
r Let stard a nrling last yerr h/ a
fedeml appeals ort that San Jce,
Calif., puHic scfrool dicials unh*
fully discrimioated aginst Hepenic
stn&lrts ad cnrst act to desegre
gate the systerl The cmrt declined
to upset the ruling by the fth U.S.
Circuit C.ourt of Appeals in &; tw
Unifu &todrYsrrdct t E*tz
r Deciled unaninmsly that the
federal Edrrcation of the Handi.
cap@ Act may require public
school officials to reimburse private
school costs for parents who on
their own decide to transfer a hand-
icapped child to a private school.

Justice William H. Rehnquist,
writing for the court, said public
sctrols must pay if ourts later de.
termine that the parents were @r-
rect. But'parents c/tro lactl witholt
the consent of state or lcal officials
do so at tleir own finarrid rislq'
Rehnquist sai<l If courts later de.
cide that scfiml offichls were right,
he said, parents could not be reirn-
bursed. The case is Btttli;gtol
*lwl &;,',itb t lL,[Id,r;',afrt
b$rt;r*clfZrlfu.