European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 5, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                June 1977 the stars and stripes Page 15 Anthony Lewis Odd interpretations of Constitution the Constitution forbids a prison Warden to inflict cruel such As on a convicted criminal who Breaks prison but the Constitution allows a teacher to flog a with out giving him or her Chance to for responding slowly to instruct the Constitution As an invasion of states application of the Federal minimum wage Law to local government employees whose work affects interstate but it lets the Federal govern ment Send a Man to prison for mailing obscene material from one town to another in a state whose legislature not decided not to restrict the distribution of obscenity to at is the Constitution As a majority of the supreme court reads it in june if it seems a curious making distinctions that Are hard to under then that is for the justices to sex with increasing frequency in the last two their decisions have introduced strange doctrine into our fundamental of course there is unfairness in reducing supreme court decisions to a the issues Are not so but the Swift dance has its it May indicate the direction in which the court is it May suggest the values that unix beneath the reasons Given by the justices for the results they in the 1920s it was not really unfair to look at the Overall thrust of decisions and conclude whatever the explanation in each the court was basically concerned with protecting property As a social in 1937 the court turned its interests away from property and toward political human equal we seem to be at a turning Point in judicial a compelling example of changing Doc Trine was the a year against minimum wages for municipal for the first time in 40 the court struck Down an act that was an exercise of congresses plenary institutional Power to regulate interstate the Deci Sion was attributed not to any specific clause in the Constitution but to the Gener Al idea of of local responsibility with compare a recent decision on the Law of the cases Are very but looking at them together does say something about the values of the judges Jerry Lee Smith was in the mail order business in Des in 1974 he took orders from mount Ayr and Guthrie in Southern and mailed copies of sex magazines and the orders turned out to be from postal inspect using false Smith was convicted of violating the Comstock the 1873 Federal Law that prohibits the mailing of filthy or vile the Iowa supreme court in 1973 had found the Stales obscenity Laws unconstitutionally in 1974 the legislature re pealed All the old statutes and passed a new one prohibiting the distribution of obscene material to minors no minors were involved in Smiths so he did nothing wrong As far As Iowa was con Federal postal Law would usually pre Vail Over any local but there is a Par Adox in the obscenity the present supreme court has said that obscenity must be judged by local Community Stan Smith argued that Iowa Legisla Tion showed its and that the Case against him therefore a 54o4 majority in the supreme court turned Smith the opinion said Little about states rights or the values that meant so much when minimum wages were at nor did the court blink at the illogic of Community Stan the Smith Case had one redeeming aspect Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a dissent so persuasive that one May Hope to see it become the Law some the vice of obscenity is said to be that it is patently offensive to a Justice Stevens yet Smiths offended no one and violated no Iowa obscenity real damage is the Way its vulgar display May degrade a Community envy yet prosecuting people like Smith does no Good about that and threatens True Freedom of Roy Allkins a War whether we like it or not it was interesting to ruminate on what Vic president Walter Mondale and prime minister John Vorster of South Africa would talk about when they met recently in the topic of their Confer ence was announced previously As the separation of Black and White people by prime minister Vorster said Well in and Vance of the conference that he has nothing to say about modifying vice president Mondale said he intended to ask that apartheid be scrapped As the National the entire policy of South Africa is based squarely on the separation of White people from All the coloured whatever the degree of no we is permitted the nonwhite by what the Law says is the Way things will Vorster he has not been receptive to sermons on majority Rule in South our peripatetic ambassador to the United Andrew not Given to diplomatic sees a simple so Lution to the problem of human rights in South Africa majority Rule to be accomplished within a Given time in the very near president Carter is said to agree with Youngs though he does not set a timetable for this a com what could the vice president of the United oriented from childhood to the idea of Freedom in Liberal and demo cratic have said to the Leader of be party in Power in South who believes the franchise Given to nonwhites would result in destruction of the Whites did he Point to the subhuman living conditions in the Black townships of Johannes Cape town or port Elizabeth did he talk about the inferiority of schools for Blacks or that there is a curfew for Blacks did he Point out Blacks As Well As Whites May be taken from their Homes in the Middle of the night by police and held without being charged did he Point out these and myriad other proscriptions provided by the Laws of South Africa Are violations of the Basic human rights about which president Carter has been talking and if he departed from the Nice Ness of diplomacy to Point out the vicious Ness of the South african what meaning did it have for prime minister Vorster and his immune to human i columns comments suffering and humiliation and violations of the rights of Man in a White paper issued two months Vorster government we Are today involved in a War whether we Tike it or so the White people of South con Vinced they Are the final bastion of White supremacy in the Are prepared to fight to defend they have a holy War Ofa even during the darkest Days of their development As a nation they never treated the zulus As tighten who had lost a single they humiliated their Black expo is by making rules and making them stick through the persuasion of guns no no Union no jobs above a certain level there Are but none which threatens the when production the Blacks Are rushed into unaccustomed but always there is an out provided by some Law or come to think of has anyone Ever questioned Vorster on the economics of a White South Africa without Black hands cd iwo tuck my i unit pm rep Remdt Thom of Tow m no u in must m imn a the Shari so Ripe of in a Ltd go if