NEWS - NATSIOS v. NATIONAL FOREIGN

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS - NATSIOS v. NATIONAL FOREIGN TRADE COUNCIL

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-01/09/125l-010900-idx.html

A LOOK AT . . . The Rehnquist Court
              In Their Sights

              Outlook staff
              Sunday, January 9, 2000; Page B03 

              The current Supreme Court has refrained from making
sweeping statements
              about social and political issues. There is every reason
to believe that trend
              will continue in the remaining cases to be heard this
term. Here is a quick
              preview of some of them:
- - - - - - 

NATSIOS v. NATIONAL FOREIGN TRADE COUNCIL

              A 1996 Massachusetts statute was passed to prevent state
agencies from
              dealing with companies that did business in Burma (called
Myanmar by its
              military rulers) as a way of protesting that country's
authoritarian regime. The
              statute had been modeled on more than 24 anti-apartheid
laws enacted by
              other state and local governments in the 1980s. The
Clinton administration
              had imposed economic sanctions on Burma that barred new
U.S. investment
              there in April 1997, although they were viewed as less
stringent than the
              Massachusetts law.

              Did the Massachusetts law infringe upon the federal
government's authority to
              set foreign policy?