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Breaking News

Supreme Court Issues Two Narrow Decisions

Aired April 24, 2001 - 10:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, while you two were chatting, we've gotten word of some breaking news coming out of Washington and the Supreme Court. Let's check in now with our Jeanne Meserve standing by in the Washington bureau -- Jeanne?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, two 5-4 decisions from the Supreme Court today. One is entitled "Atwater v. Lago Vista, Texas." This had to do with a woman who was arrested on her way to a soccer match for not wearing a seatbelt. The Justices have ruled that the police may arrest and handcuff people even for minor offenses that would be punishable only by a fine.

The second case involves Title XI. It's called "Alexander James, et al v. Sandoval." In this case, Martha Sandoval went to take her driver's license test in the State of Alabama. She's a Spanish speaker, wanted to take the test in Spanish and was snot allowed to do so. The Supreme Court has ruled today 5-4 that this is not discriminatory because the intent here was not to discriminate.

Our Charles Bierbauer is at the court reading these decisions and digesting what they mean. We'll have more for you later -- Leon, back to you.

HARRIS: All right, good deal. Thanks, Jeanne. We'll check back with you in a few minutes.

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