Wedinesday. May 29, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY - Pag Tre SFri Bu1mpers defeats Flbright Supreme Court restricts class action suits WASHINGTON (,P) - The Supreme Court dealt a blow yesterday to the ability of consumers, environmentalists and others to put small claims for dam- ages together into large class action shits. The court acted in a case brought against stock brokers by a New York shoe dealer for himself and other buyers and sellers of small quantities of stock on the New York Stock Exchange. The jistices ruled that plaintiffs in such suits mast pay the cost of notifying as many as possible of those on whose behalf they asie suing. "THIS DECISION effectively sabo- tages most consumer class actions," commented Mark Green of consumer ads ucate Ralph Nader's Corporate Ac- csuntability Group. The class -action case had been in the courts for eight years. The plaintiff, Morton Eisen, contended lie should be permitted to notify the small-lot traders by some form of pub- lication, since he estimated there were six million of them. U. S. DISTRICT Judge Harold Tyler of New York worked out a system com- hining this with notice to buyers involv- ed in more than 10 transactions and to 5,000 traders selected at random. The U. S. Circuit Court in New York struck down this system along with a ruling by Tyler that the brokers named as defendants should pay 90 per cent of the cost. Eisen contended the so-called "odd lot" traders. were overcharged around $120 million in brokerage fees. CLASS-ACTION suits for damages have proliferat6d since the Supreme Court and Congress adopted a rule in 1966 broadening the circumstances in which they may be brought. In yesterday's decision, the court said this rule requires that "individual notice must be sent to all class members whose names and addresses may be ascer- tained through reasonable effort." In other actions yesterday, the court: -Agreed, in a cane of wide interest in the publishing and library fields, to rule tow far libraries may go in giving out photocopies of books and articles without violating copyrights; -Declined to review a state court-de- cision striking down Louisiana obscenity and public nuisance laws;' -Declined to interfere in a decision upholding a Washington state law requir ing financial disclosures by public offic- ials; and -Agreed to review a court decision allowing radio and television stations to broadcast winning numbers in the New Jersey lottery. LITLE ROC'K 2 Arkansas (Glv. Dale Bumpers, at rising star in llent- cratic politics, wons nonination to the US_ Senate Lit nIght, etdimgtthe 30- year career of Sen. .1. W. l-'lbright, one of the natiton's ftreigmn policy leadert Filbright had hi-n chairmsan of the Senate Foreign Rel:itittn, titimmutittee since 1959 ad wa a leadiig critic of the Vietnam war. Bimittisers' niunilttaat is tatnt tatktni to election in the predomitinately Iemo- cratic state, although he will be opposed by Reptblicat banker Joh} Harris Jones in the general election Nov. S WITH 1,036 of the state's 2,6118 pre- cincts reporting, the unofficial tally show- ed Bumpers with 118,428 votes, or 63 per cent, and ulithrightt with 62,118 or 37 per cent. Bumpers was leading in almost ciry citunty. Fltbrighit, 69, tutu sitice residents he- fore the election that he would "cheer- fully accept" the verdict if voters chiose to retire him. BEFORE 19711, liumtpers had bie i tnly a school board itember and, as the only lawyer in town, city attorney of Charles- ton, population 1,5(X). With Fulbright's defeat, 74-year-tld Sen. John Sparkman (D-Ala a co a'iut tent supporter of President Nixon's mil- itary budgets and foreign policy and a backer of foreign aid since the TrumnaA1 administration, has first choice ii the chairmanship of the Senate "'ireigtn Re lations Committee. Sparkman is the second-ranked Democrat on the icom mittee. But under a rule limiting senators to one major chairmanship, iparkman would have to give up the chairman- ship of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Fulbright himself dropped the banking chair when he took over foreign relations. SPARKMAN HAS not ;nJicatedIl his preference, but associates believe he might take the Foreign Relations chair- manship. If Sparkman declines, the next rank- ing Democrat on the committee is Mike Mansfield of Montana, but to assume the chairmanship Mansfield would have to step down as Senate Majority Leader. Explosion kills nine A man cries over the banner-draped body of a fellow demonstrator after a time bomb hidden in a plastic garbage bag exploded yesterday at an anti-Fascist rally in Brescia, northern Italy. The blast killed at least nine persons and in- jured dozens more. No local threat posedby IUD recall,. officials say By BARBARA CORNELL Inadequate packaging of 150,000 cop- per intra-uterine devices (IUDs), which recently caused the manufacturer of the contraceptives to-recall them, apparently poses no hazard to local women. The copper IUDs, known as "Cu7s," were voluntarily recalled by Searle Laboratories this month when several doctors reported finding that some of the packages were open on delivery - Local gays protest Catholic censure of N.Y. rights act By DAVID STOLL nance there last week. "If you got some women and children "I guess they want us to react or out here," suggested a city policeman, something so they can get their pictures "maybe we could arrest some of these in the paper," observed Father Law- people for using obscene language in rence Grom, a priest serving at St. Fran- their presence" - cis. But although some 20 male pa- But the parishioners of St. Francis of _ rishioners gathered at Father Groin's Assisi Catholic Church on E. Stadium request on the church steps above the Blvd. never followed his suggestion, sidewalk where the demonstrators were When they arrived for 10:30 a.m. and picketing, no confrontation ensued. noon masses last Sunday morning, they Carrying signs, singing snatches of found the front entrance of their church songs, and sometimes taunting people picketed by approximately 20 gay men, arriving for mass, the demonstrators some of them in drag. passed out leaflets to the few parishion- ers who would take them. The leaflets THE PICKETERS were protesting the asked that Catholics voice opposition to Archdiocese of New York's role in de- the stand of their church against gay feating a proposed human rights ordi- See GAYS, Page 9 and therefore unsterile. THE POOR packaging was caused by a malfunction of the packing ma- chine, according to Searle spokesman Bill Wicks. The machine has since been fixed and Cu7s are still being manu- factured. Wicks claims that "even if the IUDs were inserted, the risk of infection would be remote." Several city health facilities including University Hospital, University Health Service, and the Planned Parenthood clinic say they do routine checks of IUD packages, and as a result the chances that an unsterile Cu7 has been inserted are low. THE CU7 was the first IUD ever to be classified as a drug by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Other IUDs are considered mechanical devices since they are made of plastic. However, because the copper of the Cu7 is its active contraceptive ingre- dient, it is classified as a drug. Distribution of the Cu7 began March 1, but by the third week in April, doc- tors' began reporting that the package seals were broken. Searle representa- tives were sent to inspect the devices and, discovering that some packages were open, they began a recall on May 6. Mary Carol Kelly of the FDA asserts, "It is not a certainty that IUDs from the unsealed packages have caused infec- tion." "ALL IUDs can cause symptoms, and due to the newsness of the product, the women who have the Cu7s have had them for only a short while," Kelly claims. "Bleeding and cramping are normal" at this stage, she says. Wicks says that many women choose the Cu7 due to its small size, which re- duces discomfort. "You could about cov- er it with a postage stamp," he says. The C't claims higher effectiveness than any IUD currently on the market. Since the CuP has an ingredient which interacts with the body, it has been sub- ject to much scrutiny. Searle worked on the device for more than four years to meet the FDA's standards. The Cu7 has been used in Europe for two years, but its long term effects are yet to be de- termined. KATHY BIERSACK, a coordinator for the Free Peoples' Clinic in Ann Arbor, cautions women to weigh the risks using new forms of contraception, but as- serts, "On the other hand, we do know the risks of getting pregnant." Kelly urges LIl women who are con- cerned about the recall to contact their doctors, but most local health authori- ties say that the risk of infection is very slight. They recommend visits to the doctor only if unusual symptoms are noticed. Searle Laboratories Special Represen- tative Kent Mason explains, "When you buy a carton of milk, don't you check to see if it is open?"