Other Decisions

> The court also decided, 7-2, that the IRS may require banks to disclose depositors' names and other records when the taxmen have reason to be suspicious of large deposits or transactions. The decision, said worried Dissenters Potter Stewart and William O. Douglas, could let the IRS go off on "shot-in-the-dark" hunting expeditions. Speaking for the majority, Chief Justice Warren Burger conceded the problem but insisted that courts could deal with it by keeping careful limits on the IRS power. After all. Burger added, many taxpayers innocently "hide large amounts of currency in odd places out of a fear of banks"--a fear that last week's decision will not diminish.

> Guilty pleas keep the judicial system alive, if not exactly well. They dispose of more than 90% of urban criminal cases. But they also normally end a defendant's right to a constitutional challenge of his arrest or the evidence gathered for use against him. To protect that right, New York and California have both provided that even though a prisoner pleads guilty, he may still mount a constitutional attack with an appeal in state courts. But may that attack continue into federal courts via a habeas corpus petition? In a heroin possession case, a four-man minority argued that "the great writ was not designed as a means of freeing persons who have voluntarily confessed guilt." Justices Potter Stewart, William Brennan, William Douglas, Thurgood Marshall and Harry Blackmun endorsed the procedure as a practical way of permitting "the constitutional issues [to] be litigated without the necessity of going through ... a trial." The result may be more guilty pleas --meaning fewer trials for state courts --but perhaps also more habeas petitions and thus a heavier burden for federal judges.

> Another 5-4 vote led to the imposition of at least $2 million in fines on the Continental Baking Company, which had bought three smaller firms in alleged violation of a 1962 consent agreement with the Justice Department. Lower courts ruled that Continental --itself now part of ITT--should pay a single fine of $5,000 for each illegal acquisition. The majority insisted that firm antitrust enforcement requires a daily $1,000 fine for as long as the companies are improperly retained. The tough decision raised court watchers' eyebrows for another reason. The majority had taken an essentially liberal trustbusting position, and the critical fifth vote was that of Harry Blackmun. In the guilty-plea case, Blackmun's had also been the fifth vote. He and Warren Burger, close friends since childhood, have long been called the "Minnesota twins" for their conservative voting records on the court. Experts are now wondering if Blackmun has begun to set a separate and more liberal course.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.