Busy End

The Supreme Court last week wound up a busy term with a busy decision day. The Court:

P: Reversed a twelve-year-old ruling and eliminated a judicial double standard that had permitted the use of illegally procured evidence in state courts but not in federal courts. By a 5-to-4 majority, the High Court ruled that "all evidence obtained by searches and seizures in violation of the Constitution is, by that same authority, inadmissible in a state court." At least 24 states will have to modify the rules of evidence now used in their courts.

P: Ruled that a railway worker forced to join a brotherhood by a union shop contract can prevent the union from spending his dues on political causes he rejects. By another 5-to-4 majority, the Court ordered the Georgia Supreme Court to work out some dues-collection system that would satisfy dissenting railroaders who made formal protest against their union's political spending. The decision was ominous news to the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s Committee on Political Education, which gathers in dues from Republican and Democratic workers alike--but which spends its budget ($720,000 in 1959) to lobby for ardently liberal--and almost invariably Democratic--causes.

P: Decided that the Navy may bar a civilian employee of a private company from a naval base on security grounds--without giving any specified explanation.

P: Struck down a section of the Maryland constitution that requires prospective officeholders to swear their belief in God as a violation of the individual's right to religious freedom (see RELIGION).

P: Refused to dismiss Connecticut's laws against the use of birth control devices [TIME, March 10] because the plaintiffs failed to prove that the law had ever been enforced against them.

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