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American Morning

Major Announcements of Decisions Made in U.S. Supreme Court

Aired June 24, 2002 - 10:31   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 ANCHOR: Time to go to the Supreme Court in Washington. Some major announcements of decisions were made last week. More of the same coming this week.

Our Bob Franken is there covering for us this morning.

Good morning, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

First, let's talk about what did happen, the major decisions. Yet the most major ones have not been released, but there was a case, another capital punishment case, where the supreme court this time has ruled by a 7-2 margin ruled in favor of the defendant, saying that capital crimes must be imposed after a jury hearing, and not in the case of Ring (ph) versus Arizona, and not by a judge. That is going to effect about 100-150 defendants on death row, because the finding was retroactive. It was delivered by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. As I said, two dissenting. Those were O'Connor and Rehnquist. That's what the Supreme Court did.

What it did not rule is on the cases that are probably the most significant of this term, one of them is the school voucher's case in Cleveland, Ohio. The question is, can an entity, a government, provide school vouchers that can used in private, make that parochial schools. That is exactly the procedure that have been set up in Cleveland. An appellate court had said no, that couldn't happen. The Supreme Court justices are going decide whether that should be overturned.

The other one also involves schools that has to do with drug testing, after-school drug testing. Justices have already ruled that athletes may be subject to drug testing, but this case turns on whether all extra curricula activities apply. But the cases in Oklahoma, that will be another issue. Both of these cases will be announced on Thursday.

Justice Rehnquist, the chief justice, has said that he will be -- they will be ending their term with remainder of the cases. There are four left, including those two -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, Bob Franken, standing by at the Supreme Court.

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