Briefs

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR MOONIES

Critics called it "religious gerrymandering." At issue was a 1978 Minnesota law that requires religious organizations drawing more than half their money from nonmembers to comply with burdensome registration and reporting rules. Mainstream denominations do not rely heavily on outside contributions, so the law's obvious targets were newer organizations like the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. Though Minnesota maintained that the law was a sensible way to protect the public from fraud, Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, writing for the majority, ruled that it violated the Constitution's establishment of religion clause. Said Brennan: "This statute does not operate evenhandedly, nor was it designed to."

DOCKING ANTI-SOVIET BOYCOTTERS

When Soviet troops moved into Afghanistan 2 1/2 years ago, U.S. longshoremen took characteristically direct action. Calling the Soviets "international bully boys," they refused to unload ships bearing Russian cargo. Allied International, a Boston-based importer of Russian wood products, lost money as a result, and the company sued the International Longshoremen's Association. Last week a unanimous Supreme Court agreed with Allied that the I.L.A. had engaged in a boycott that was illegal under federal labor laws designed "to protect neutral parties, the helpless victims of quarrels that do not concern them at all." Allied had been hurt, wrote Justice Lewis Powell, "as understandable and even commendable as the I.L.A.'s ultimate objectives may be." A lower court will set a price tag on the damages. Dock workers, who have used such boycotts before, must now look for other ways to demonstrate their disapproval.

CLEARER TOXIC-SHOCK VERDICT

Patricia Kehm, 25, a mother of two, started using Procter & Gamble's Rely tampons on Sept. 2, 1980. Four days later she was dead. Kehm was a victim of toxic-shock syndrome, which earlier in 1980 had been linked to superabsorbent tampons like Rely. Kehm's family sued Procter & Gamble, and last week in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, they won a jury award of $300,000. The only other Rely litigation to reach trial produced a baffling jury verdict March 19 in Denver: the company was found negligent, but the victim, who survived, won no money for her illness or her claims of psychological damage. Lawyers bringing some 400 other suits against Procter & Gamble were cheered by the clearer outcome in Cedar Rapids. Said Plaintiff Michael Kehm: "I hope it's a benefit to other victims and families who have suffered."

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