[BRC-NEWS] U.S. Supreme Court News: Chicago v. Morales Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - David M Veverka BRC News [Moderator: excerpted from U.S. Supreme Court News of 06/10/1999] Chicago v. Morales No. 97-1121 Full text: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/97-1121.ZS.html DUE PROCESS The United States Supreme Court held 6-3 (opinion by Stevens; dissent by Scalia, Rehnquist, Thomas) that the city of Chicago Ordinance 92-4, prohibiting "criminal street gang members" from "loitering" with one another in any public place violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The ordinance defines loitering as "to remain in any one place with no apparent purpose," and grants officers absolute discretion to determine which activities constitute loitering. The court concluded the ordinance is unconstitutionally vague because it did not provide a sufficient limitation of police discretion. In a 3-3-3 plurality opinion, Stevens noted the ordinance was also impermissibly vague in that it did not give the ordinary citizen adequate notice of what is forbidden and what is allowed. __________________________________________________________________________ United States Supreme Court News Willamette Law Online - Willamette University College of Law Editors: David Veverka dveverka@willamette.edu Mike Kouris mkouris@willamette.edu Student Editorial Board: Joel Kuhl, Elyssa Weber, Merrilee Harrell, Paul Williams, David Bowser http://www.willamette.edu/law/wlo -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress - General News/Alerts/Announcements Subscribe: Email "subscribe brc-news" to ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-06.12.99-22:51:53-17618