Press enter after choosing selection

Plant News

Plant News image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
April
Year
1974
OCR Text

Communes Lose in High Court

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that local governments have the right to use zoning laws to ban communes.

In a case involving six Long Island, New York college students, the high court reversed two lower court decisions by ruling that a city does have the right to pass zoning ordinances based on "family values." The majority opinion in the 7 to 2 ruling was written by the court's most liberal member, Justice William O. Douglas.

In a strong dissenting opinion, Justice Thurgood Marshall charged that the majority was attempting to "regulate the way people choose to associate with each other in the privacy of their own homes." The ruling is expected to trigger a rash of new anti-commune ordinances across the United States.

Greasy Profits

The Occidental Petroleum Company has become the first oil company to reveal its 1974 profits picture. 

Occidental, the 11th large oil company in America, reports that during the first two months of 1974, the company made a profit of $46.9 million.

This figure it staggering in economic terms because it represents a 1300% increase in profits over the same two-month period of last year. 

Occidental is just the first company to report its 1974 earnings. Last month, Washington Senator Henry Jackson predicted that the size of the oil industry profits, to be revealed publicly in the next few weeks, will be what Jackson termed "obscene."