The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 65, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 22, 1977 Page: 4 of 20
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Constitutional scholar favors high court activism
by Steve Sullivan
Dr. Henry Steele Commager,
constitutional scholar, spoke
Monday afternoon about
issues arising from the equal
protection clause of the
fourteenth amendment to the
constitution, and about the
case of San Antonio v.
Rodriguez in particular.
Commager spoke at Rice on a
lend-lease program from the
University of Houston, which
had invited Commager down
from Amherst to participate in
UH's semi-centennial celebra-
tion.
In the first 50 years of the
amendment's existence, most
cases before the Supreme
Court arose under its "due
process" clause. But within
the last few decades,
Commager says, "equal
protection has become as
important as the due process
clause." The equal protection
clause has given the Court (at
least in the Court's view)
broad latitude to intervene in
state affairs to protect the
rights of its citizens, as in the
one-man-one-vote decision in
Baker u. Carr.
The "abandonment of
liberty of contract" has limited
the scope of the equal
protection clause to racial
discrimination. The question
in the Rodriguez case was
whether the equal proteciton
clause should be applied to
education. "Education has
been assumed to be fundamen-
tal to the intelligent exercise of
voting rights," Commager
said. Although education was
also the issue in Brown v.
Topeka, where the Court ruled
in favor of a judicially active
role, the Court in the
Off-campus budget cuts reconsidered
by Ted Andrews
SA president Claude Sisson
told the Thresher late
Wednesday night that the
massive cut in the off-campus
student budget would not take
place as announced at the
September 13 SA senate
meeting. Ken Moseley and
Carla McFarland, off-campus
senators, both of whom had
expressed outrage at the move
earlier Wednesday night, were
pleased by the move but still
critical of the SA for "not
thinking at all of the off
campus student's real needs,"
Moseley said.
The budget-slashing mood
descended upon the Executive
Committee of the Student
Association Senate (EC/SAS)
this semester when a $3000
carryover of funds did not
materialize as expected.
Several essential expenditures
had to be taken care of,
including the salary of the SA
secretary, so the EC/SAS
began to look for places where
their budget could be cut.
Off-campus, with an
allotment of nearly $400, was
one of the largest single items
in the budget. However, off-
campus has been spared, and
the SA has decided instead to
cut the community affairs
budget, the speaker's fund,
and the conference fund. At
the last Senate meeting Sisson
also suggested that the fund
squeeze be remedied with a tax
hike.
Moseley, who had earlier
criticized the proposed budget
slash, praised the SA
president and the Executive
Committee for the "states-
manlike move." McFarland,
also pleased, told the
Thresher that while the off-
campus committee will gladly
cooperate "where we can if
there's a shortage," any cuts
in their budget "will mutilate
muscle, not fat. I'm talking
about our planned events and
services." She added that an
off-campus-oriented party, to
be held on campus Oct. 28 and
a housing referral service were
"in the pipeline."
Rodriguez case ruled, 5-4, that
education was not a protected
right under the equal
protection clause.
Commager seems to favor
an activist 'Court role in
American politics. "Curtail-
ment (of rights) can result
from covert neglect as well as
overt discrimination." He sees
the Court as "the umpire of the
federal system. Majority rule
must be sacred, but majority
rule must also be reasonable.
For if it is not reasonable, it is
not sacred." He notes the
dangers of over-reliance on the
Court. Excessive Supreme
Court intervention, he says,
minority report iisis
"dries up the responsibility of
democratic rule."
The Supreme Court will
continue to be active in
American politics, as
Commager foresees it.
"History has baked our cake...
the courts have become the
most effective agent in
enlarging the arena of
liberty." The Court, as almost
anyone will admit, is not
infallible. In a recent case, the
Court, led by Justice
Rehnquist, ruled that
"pregnancy was not a sex-
related disability. The Senate
overrode overwhelmingly Mr.
Justice Rehnquist's contribu-
tion to biology."
RAMAS sets meeting
This year the Rice Associa-
tion of Mexican-American
Students (RAMAS) has hopes
of great activity. Plans have
already been made to show
several films. Other more
specific activities have not yet
been discussed.
A room upstairs in the
RMC has been designated as
the Minorities Office and has
been outfitted with a desk,
cabinet, and telephone. The
office is to be shared by
RAMAS, the Black Student
Union, and the Chinese
Student Union. RAMAS is
going to try to staff the office
several afternoons a week and
also to compile a test file to be
kept in the office.
Recently, a seven person
committee met to revise the
Association's constitution,
which will be voted on at the
next meeting, Thursday,
September 22 at 8pm in Sewall
Hall.
RAMAS is open to the Rice
community and everyone is
invited to join or just visit.
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Journalism &
The Rice Thresher
are not necessarily
synonymous. • •
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THE RICE THRESHER
— the weekly publication of WMRice University.
the rice thresher, September 22, 1977—page 4
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Parker, Philip. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 65, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 22, 1977, newspaper, September 22, 1977; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245344/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.