JUSTICES TO REVIEW PENALTY FOR PUBLIC HOUSING DRUG USE

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a case that originated in Oakland, the Supreme Court
will decide if families can be evicted from public housing because of one
family member's drug use.

Critics of the government's zero-tolerance policy say unwitting older
people suffer the most, often being forced out of their subsidized housing
because of troublemaking relatives.

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to review the national
one-strike-and-you're-out rule in a case involving four elderly California
public housing residents ordered to move.

The Bush administration had asked justices to overturn an appeals court's
ruling that the policy is needlessly harsh. The ruling by the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals made the policy unenforceable in the nine states
plus Guam covered by the California-based court.

"We're concerned that the case is being heard at a time when the mood of
the country conceivably is to relax civil liberties," said Catherine
Bishop, a policy opponent and attorney for the National Housing Law
Project. "You sweep up innocent individuals in your zeal to stop crime."

San Francisco attorney Gary Lafayette, who represents the Oakland Housing
Authority, said "It may become more difficult to address the issues of
drugs and criminal activity."