Tune In Next Term

IS THE SUPREME COURT EVENLY SPLIT ON ONE OF the most closely watched cases of the current term? That may be the meaning of its decision last week to put off until next year a ruling on Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic, a case with important implications for the continuing street battles over abortion. It would decide whether courts can use an 1871 law intended to curb the Ku Klux Klan as a device to halt violent antiabortion demonstrations and clinic blockades. Three years ago, a federal court relied on the old law, which prohibits conspiracies that aim to deprive people of their civil rights, to order the antiabortion group Operation Rescue to stop blocking the entrance of a clinic in Alexandria, Va. Last year, in what looked like a signal to the antiabortion wing of the G.O.P., the Bush Administration joined the case on the side of Operation Rescue.

As is usual when the Justices postpone a ruling, they gave no reason. But one strongly suggests itself. It was a court of only eight members that heard the case last fall: at that time, Justice Clarence Thomas had not yet joined the bench. Last week's decision to delay raised the possibility that the other eight were stuck in a 4-to-4 deadlock. If so, Thomas, who will be present when the case is reargued at the court's next term, may now possess the crucial, tie-breaking vote.