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By MICHAEL KIRKLAND
WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) _ The Supreme
Court has struck down a Chicago ordinance targeting street gangs, affirming a lower-court
ruling and making it harder for cities across the country to deal with such gangs.
The Chicago ordinance said police could
disperse individuals loitering in a public place if the officers reasonably believed
they were members of a street gang.
Today's decision brought bitter dissent
from the court's three conservatives.
Writing for the majority of six liberals
and moderates, Justice John Paul Stevens said "the freedom to loiter for innocent
purposes is part of the 'liberty' protected by the due process" or fair hearing
"clause of the 14th Amendment. We have expressly identified this 'right to remove
from one place to another according to inclination' as 'an attribute of personal
liberty' protected by the Constitution."
But Stevens said it was not even necessary
to address constitutional questions in the case. The court majority ruled that the
ordinance's broad sweep violates the requirement that a law-making entity establish
minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices
Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.
Thomas, the court's only black member, was
especially pointed in his written opinion.
"Today," Thomas said, "the
court focuses extensively on the 'rights' of gang members and their companions. It
can safely do so _ the people who will have to live with the consequences of today's
opinion do not live in our neighborhoods...people who have seen their neighborhoods
literally destroyed by gangs and violence and drugs. They are good, decent people
who must struggle to overcome their desperate situation, against all odds, in order
to raise their families, earn a living and remain good citizens....
"(T)he court today has denied our most
vulnerable citizens that very thing that Justice Stevens...elevates above all else
_ the 'freedom of movement.' And that is a shame. I respectfully dissent."
Under the now-outlawed ordinance, a conviction
for failing to obey officers' orders carried up to six months in jail and a $500
fine.
Chicago officials told the Supreme Court
in briefs and argument last December that gangs gathered on the street as part of
strategy to recruit new members, claim territory, antagonize rival gangs and intimidate
the public.
During the three years of the ordinance's
enforcement, police issued more than 89,000 dispersal orders and arrested more than
42,000 people for violations.
However, eventually the Illinois Supreme
Court ruled that the ordinance was too vague, and thus violated the free association
guarantees of the First Amendment.
The city then asked the U.S. Supreme Court
for review.
(No. 97-1121, Chicago vs. Morales et al)
All rights reserved.
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