Not Ready for Prime Time in U.S. Courts By Irving R. Kaufman, \f7 and \o7 Irving R. Kaufman is a judge of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, where he has served as the chief judge. He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Hold Back on Returning Panama Canal Sovereignty to Unreliable Noriega By Gerald B. Solomon and Bruce Fein, \o7 Rep. Gerald B. Solomon (R-N.Y.) is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Bruce Fein\f7 , \o7 a private attorney in Washington, is a former associate deputy attorney general. \f7
Different Value for Property of Equal Worth--Proposition 13's 'Irrational Tax World' \f7 and \o7 In ruling on a West Virginia case, the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 18 appeared to invite challenges to a provision of California's Proposition 13 allowing for disparate taxation of properties of equal value. When the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 13 in 1978, Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird filed a separate opinion concurring in part with the other justices but arguing in dissent that the taxing methods violate the equal-protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. Following are excerpts from that opinion.