Decisions

How much bad-mouthing must a policeman take before arresting the name-caller? The Supreme Court has ruled that states could ban verbal cop-baiting only if it involved "fighting words" likely to provoke a breach of the peace. But last week the court again made clear that no matter what words are used, the state law must first have defined the offense with precision. In North Little Rock, Ark., a policeman had heard one man in a group say, "Well, there goes the big bad mother-- cops." Twice more, with pungent variations, the hecklers piled profanity on the policeman. Finally he made arrests. Dissenter Harry Blackmun, joined by Warren Burger and William Rehnquist, dryly related those facts and found that the applicable law had been sufficiently narrowed. But the majority, though it filed no written opinion, sent the case back to the Arkansas Supreme Court. The inflammatory language used may indeed have been punishable, but the majority apparently was not satisfied that the statute involved had yet been interpreted to include only "fighting words."

Can an employee be fired at the boss's whim? For those protected by union agreements, Government service and long-term contracts, the answer is no. But perhaps half of U.S. workers are vulnerable to the common-law tradition permitting dismissal for any reason. The New Hampshire Supreme Court, however, recently struck down the common-law rule because it allowed an employer too much of an "iron hand." If the firing "is motivated by bad faith or malice or based on retaliation," said the court, it "is not in the best interest of the economic system or the public good and constitutes a breach of the employment contract." As a result, those fired under such circumstances in New Hampshire may now bring suit for monetary damages.

Can a single creation win both a copyright and a design patent? A copyright protects a work for as much as 56 years; a design patent lasts for 14 years but protects the creation even when another innocently comes up with the same idea. Generally, copyrights are for the protection of authors, while patents are for inventors. Still, said the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, there can be an overlap; and in such cases, the author-inventor may ask for both forms of protection. The new winner in this fledgling category is Richard Q. Yardley, who created the Spiro Agnew wristwatch. For its qualities as a "work of art," said the court, the watch deserves a copyright. For its "new, original and ornamental design," it gets a design patent.

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