Vote to Repeal

By the time the Administration's anti-crime bill passed the Senate last week, it had grown and changed mightily. For one thing, the Senators had added a measure that would permit court-ordered wiretapping by federal and state authorities investigating almost any serious crime; federal authorities would not need a court order in emergency situations involving national security or organized crime. The legislators also authorized a ban on the mail-order sale of handguns, as well as $100 million in federal funds for local law enforcement. And, as many civil libertarians feared, the Senators voted to repeal some Supreme Court rulings they considered were hampering the police.

Comment on recent court rulings added considerable heat to the debate. Arkansas' John McClellan, his voice hoarse and quaking, asked: "Do you favor a continuation of rulings that push the spiral of crime upward and upward? We had better quit trying to find alibis and excuses as to why the law cannot be enforced and get down to enforcing it." In one remarkable bit of rhetoric, Louisiana's Russell Long explained why American Bar Association lawyers opposed the attempt to curb the court. "They have a vested interest in crime," said Long. "Why should they give up the tools that liberate all the guilty criminals? They make money out of that." Despite such emotionalism--or perhaps because of it--three anti-court measures carried.

Specifically, in federal cases the Senators struck down the court's Miranda requirement that arrested suspects be told of their rights to silence and legal counsel. Down, too, went the ruling that such suspects have the right to have a lawyer present at lineups. The Senators also voided the court's holding that confessions may not be used if obtained during an unreasonable delay between arrest and arraignment. Such attacks on the court are not yet assured, however. The bill must now go to a Senate-House conference committee chaired by New York Representative Emanuel Celler, and Celler last week insisted that he would rather see the whole bill die than let the anti-court amendments survive.

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