SUPREME COURT JUSTICE REVIEWS CASES

HOT SPRINGS, Va. (AP) Chief Justice William Rehnquist reviewed the
Supreme Court's 1998-99 term for judges and lawyers Saturday, citing
six cases he said made important legal points but received little
media attention.

The cases ranged from procedural decisions, such as the unanimous
ruling that a lawyer cannot appeal a court punishment while the
underlying case is in progress, to constitutional, international
business and sovereign immunity questions.

Speaking to the judicial conference of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, Rehnquist said the relatively obscure cases "were born to
blush unseen and waste their sweetness on desert air were I ... not to
talk about them."

In one case, Rehnquist discussed the 5-4 decision he wrote in a
Minnesota narcotics case that narrowed individual privacy rights.

The case involved two men who were allowed by a woman in Eagan, Minn.,
to use her house to pack cocaine in exchange for some of the drug. A
police officer saw them through a window, and they were arrested as
they exited.

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the window-watching constituted
an illegal search under the 4th Amendment and overturned the
convictions.

Rehnquist said his court reversed the Minnesota decision because the
suspects were business visitors, not overnight guests, which are
protected under Minnesota law. Thus, he said, "Their 4th Amendment
rights were not violated even if the looking through the window was a
search."

The conference, a look back at the just-ended Supreme Court session,
drew judges and lawyers from throughout the 4th U.S. Circuit. It
includes Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and West
Virginia.