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Saturday Morning News

Supreme Court Ends Landmark Session

Aired July 1, 2000 - 9:13 a.m. ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. Supreme Court has just ended one of its most important terms in years, important because of the issues the justices took on.

Now, here are some of the landmark decisions. The justices struck down student-led prayers at football games, saying the prayers violated church and state separation. The court reaffirmed that suspects must be told their right to remain silent.

A challenge to the Boy Scouts' ban on gay troop leaders was dismissed, allowing the organization to continue that ban. Concerns about privacy and safety were addressed, with the justices upholding a federal law that bars states from disclosing personal information on drivers' licenses.

And in a decision that could affect abortion laws nationwide, the Supreme Court struck down one state's law that banned late term abortions.

This session of the high court will go down in the annals of jurisprudence as a weighty one. The conservative court tackled some of the most vexing issues of our time, not always rendering a predictable ruling.

Predicting where the court is headed isn't easy either. As many as four justices may be replaced by whomever is elected president in November.

For more on the Supreme Court, present and future, we turn to Susan Low Bloch, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University, joining us from Washington.

Thanks for being with us, Susan.

SUSAN LOW BLOCH, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: First of all, just put this session in perspective, if you could. We just called it a weighty one. Would you agree?

BLOCH: Yes, I'd call it a blockbuster. There were a lot of hot- button issues, a lot of cases decided by very close five-four majorities, a lot of acts of Congress and the states struck down. So it was an exciting term. O'BRIEN: OK. And Susan, let me ask you this. As we look ahead toward the next term, whoever is elected president, there's some talk that there could be as many as four vacancies. It's difficult to predict these sorts of things, of course, and it's also difficult to predict how justices ultimately will vote. Looking at Justice Souter might be an example there.

What's your thought on that? Do you suspect there'll be that many vacancies, first of all?

BLOCH: Well, there are three justices who are over 70, one of whom is 80, and four of them have had serious health problems. So I would say that the odds of having a couple of vacancies are very high. Which ones they are is hard to predict, and obviously who the next president is is hard to predict. So the actual consequences are difficult to predict.

But I think that it -- to me, it shows how important this next election is, because I do think there'll be, I'd say, at least two vacancies, and perhaps as many as four, as you suggested.

O'BRIEN: All right. Susan Low Block, who is a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University, we apologize for cutting you short, but we have a bit of breaking news which we have to attend to. Thanks for being with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

BLOCH: OK.

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