OCR Text |
Show Fariali, Prl.r I) University of Uth fait Principle of Estoppel SIGNATURE CANNOT BE DENIED ON GUARANTY Charlotte Moulton The WASHINGTON (UPI) Wed4 to 5 ruled Court Supreme nesday that financing public schools with property taxes is constitutional and does not discriminate against the poor, but that the need is apparent for reform by state and local governments. The majority opinion was written by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., a former chairman of the Richmond, Va., School Board and president of the Virginia State Board of Education, who stressed the courts reluctance to interfere in questions of tax and educational policies that belong to the states. The court reversed a decision by a federal panel in special three-judg- e San Antonio, Tex., in December, 1971, that use of a local property tax discriminated on the basis of wealth, and denied the Constitutions equal . protection of the law for schools in PRUDENTIAL CARBON AND RIBBON CO., D.C. BLUTH, M.W. WILKERSON, et al., Defendants and Appellants Judgment in favor of plaintiff on a guaranty. Supreme Court: Affirmed. "Bluth in acting aa the court found he did is estopped to deny his signature on the guaranty which he purported sign: and since Bluth is bound on the guaranty. Wilkerson's defense is without merit." Justice F. Henri Henroid dissenting. Plaintiff counsel: Benjamin Spence Roy G. Haslam 80 W. Broadway Defendant counsel: Dwight L. King State St. 1 1973 Law Day Observance To Underscore Role Of Our Courts -- A proclamation in recognition of the 16th annual nationwide observance of taw Day U.S.A. on May first, 1973, was signed March 8 at the White House. The theme for taw Day this year is Help Your Courts-Assu- re Justice". In his 1973 proclamation. President Nixon noted that Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist Papers nearly years ago that an independent judicial system is the best expedient which can be devised in any government, to secure a steady, upright, and impartial administration of the laws." Final Arbiter Mr. Nixon said that our judicial system is the final arbiter of American justice--anthe final guarantor of American democracy". taw Day was inaugurated by Presidential proclamation in 1958. In 1961 Congress by joint resolution established the annual observance as a special day to remind all Americans of their rights and responsibilities of 190 d citizenship. Following is the complete text of the Presidential proclamation: Nearly 190 years ago, Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist Papers that an independent judicial system is 'the best expedient which can be devised in any government, to secure a steady, upright, and impartial because without them the words of law would be words without meaning. "NOW. I. THEREFORE. RICHARD NIXON, President of the United States of America, do hereby request the observance of Tuesday, May 1, 1973, as taw Day in the United States of America. As requested by the Congress, I urge that our people observe taw Day with appropriate public ceremonies, through public bodies and private organizations, in schools, colleges and universities, and in other suitable places. I especially request that the courts, the legal profession, and all media of public information take the lead in such observances so that public understanding of the role of the courts in our society can be broadened. I call upon public officials to display the Nation's flag on public buildings on that day. "IN WITNESS WHEREOF. I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of March, in the year of our tard nineteen hundred seventy-three- , and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-seventh.- " Judge Restrains Pepsico Control administration of the laws.'" The theme of the sixteenth annual observance of taw Day, U.S.A., Help Your Courts-Assu- re Justice,' makes Hamilton's words particularly timely. For it is in our courts that our ConA three-judgNEW YORK (UPI) stitution and all our laws take on their federal Court of Appeals has practical meaning. The judicial system is the final argranted the Federal Trade Commission an order restraining Pepsfinal the biter of American justice iCo, Inc., from exercising control of guarantor of American democracy. The first principle of the judiciary Rheingold Corp., the brewing firm, must always be to interpret the law of which Pepsico acquired 83 per fairly and without prejudice--- ! he cent in a tender offer last year. rights of the weak must be equally Judge Paul R. Hays, who an protected with those nf the strong, the nouned the March 13 decision, alst rights of the poor with those of the said die court shortly would reach i rich, t he rights nf the guilty with those decision on Rheingold's applicatioi of the innocent. for an injunction restraining Pepsicc taw Preserves from removing any of Rheingolds "We honor the law because it preserexecutives or interfering in any way ves civilized society. We revere the law with the brewing, companys because it protects the dignity of the management. individual. And we respect our courts Of Rheingold - e poorer neighborhoods. the Nonetheless, Powell said, need is apparent for reform in tax systems which may well have relied too long and too heavily on the local property tax. And certainly innovative new thinking as to public education, its methods and its funding, is necessary to assure both a higher level of quality and greater uniformity of opportunity. Powell added that the ultimate solutions must come from lawmakers and from Democratic pressures of those elect them, and not from the the who the Supreme Court. Dissenting Wednesday were Justices Thurgood Marshall, William 0. Douglas, William J. Brennan Jr. and Byron R. White. Marshall wrote that the majority decision can only be seen as a retreat from our historic commitment to equality of educational opportunity. . . Use of the property tax for public schools has beat struck down as unconstitutional by state courts in New Jersey and Michigan, and by a federal court in Minnesota. The Supreme Courts decision would not affect any such ruling under a state constitution. President Nixon has repeatedly criticized inequities in the property tax method of school financing, and its growing burden on homeowners, and ordered two White House advisory commissions to propose alternatives. California, Both commissions have recommended that the states assume the full responsibility for school financing out of general revenues, following the sole example of Hawaii, rather than relying heavily on local property taxes. The has proposed taking the pressure off the states through revenue sharing, and Nixon has promised specific property tax relief for the elderly. The Texas case on which the high court ruled Wednesday was initiated in 1968 by parents and children in the Edgewood District, while a lower rate in the more - By v. D.C. 2K, 197:1 OK Funding FINANCIAL CORPORATION OF AMERICA Plaintiff and Respondent See details page WEDNESDAY, MARCH Property Tax School Capsule WASHINGTON, UU2 Supreme Court Rules: Utah Supreme Court Decision - 2121 S. h LAKE CITY, UTAH VOLUME 17, NUMBER 59 Trial Court: LkeC ity, lit a Independent School Mexican-America- n community in San Antonio. The lower court upheld their of complaint discrimination, saying their high tax rate produced only $21 per pupil from local property taxes af-fule- nt Alamo Heights District provided $308 per pupil. Powell rejected the lower court's decision that education was a fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution against state interference, r and that state law had created a class of citizens based on a standard of wealth as suspect as Law Professor Challenges FBI Rearrest Data CHICAGO (ACCN) . race and other to deny such standards a Constitutional tending right. "No rliargc fairly could be made that the system fails to provide each child with an opportunity to acquire the basic minimal skills necessary for the enjoyment of the rights of speech and of full participation in the political process," Powell said. "It has simply never been within the constitutional prerogative of this court to nullify statewide measures for financing public services merely because the burdens' or benefits thereof fall unevenly, depending upon the relative wealth of the political subdivisions in which citizens live. Marshall, joined by Douglas, countered that Powell's suggestions for tax reforms will doubtless be of great comfort to the school children of Texas' disadvantaged districts, but considering the vested interests of wealthy school districts in the preservation of the status quo, they are worth little more. In another action Wednesday the Supreme Court upheld a New York state election law requiring a voter to register in the party of his choice at least 30 days before a general election in order to vote in the next primary. The court split, 5 to 4, in the - Despiti Federal the warning, previous Bureau of Investigation continues to release faulty statistics to buttress its attack on court leniency, according to a University of Chicago researcher and authority on the U.S. courts. Hans Zeisel, professor of law and sociology at the University, has completed a study which he says demonstrates that the FBI, since 1965, has been employing a biased sampling in compiling information for its annual Uniform Crime decision. Report. Specifically he refers to The aim of the law, according to figures allegedly proving that :he state, is to discourage raiding" defendants dismissed or acquitted that is, having voters of one party by the federal courts have the highest rearrest rates of all those fraudulently represent themselves leaving the federal law enforcement as members of another party in order to affect the primary results. system. The law was challenged by the They (the correct data) clearly New York Civil Liberties Union on of basis or the cases the prove that behalf of four individuals who which the FBI wags its warning finger at the courts were selected wanted to vote in the June, 1972, with a serious, if unintentional and primary but had not registered. In the majority opinion, Justice until now perhaps even unnoticed, Potter Stewart said the combias toward increasing the apparent were not prohibited from plainants rearrest rates, Zeisel asserted in but merely had a time the January issue of the Bulletin of voting deadline imposed on them, which the Atomic Scientists. Zeisels findings are in line with they chose to disregard. He said the cutoff is not arbitrary his earlier contention that the when viewed in the light of the responsibility for gathering and issuing data on crime be transferred states purpose of avoiding from the FBI to an independent disruptive party raiding. Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. said in agency. It is high time that this difficult a dissent for himself and Justices and important task be removed William 0. Douglas, William J. from the hands of an organization Brennan Jr. and Thurgood Marshall with vested interests in the results of that no other state has imposed upon voters previously unaffiliated with statistics it gathers, and be to a group of specialists any party restrictions which even whose career interests are in ob- approach in severity those of New jectivity and accuracy, he declared York. A citizen without a vote is to a in the article. The removal of this respon- large extent one without a voice in sibility from the FBI should in no decisions which may profoundly way hamper its law enforcement affect him and his family, Powell activities. On the contrary, all its said. Whatever his disagreement energies could then be devoted to may be with the judgments of public officials the citizen should never be what had always been its primary, cause to think that he was liven and would then become its sole, leniedjust an equal right to elect them. task," the professor wrote. ien-trust- ed . Zeisel concluded that, in the case of dismissed or acquitted cases, the FBI failed to receive information on case dispositions from the many federal agencies which bring cases into the federal courts. Such agencies include the Bureau of Narcotics, the Secret Service, the Alcohol and Tax Division of the U.S. Treasury, the Postal Inspectors, and Customs Office, and the U.S. Attorneys Office. WASHINGTON Rio de Janeiro will be the site for the XVIII Con- ference of the Inter-Americ- an Association August nounced by the IABA 18-2- 4, Bar it is anSecretary-Gener- al John 0. Dahlgren of Washington. The conference work will be conducted through the twenty committees of the association which will discuss topics' dealing with matters of special interest to lawyers in this hemisphere. |