Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 29-S
cm~ich anDIYTedyJue1,97
JL Sixteen Pages
Ann Arbor, Michigan Ten Cents
Loophole may put
2 on Senate ballot
LANSING (UPI) - A legal loophole
may put Democrats Warren Bracy and
Harry Payne II on the U.S. Senate
primary ballot - even though they
gathered far short of the 17,764
nominating signatures required by the
Secretary of State.
Bracy, an Ann Arbor law professor,
collected 3,077 signatures and Payne, a
Detroit attorney, filed 11,507. Both are
newcomers to elective politics and
neither had been given a chance of win-
ning the Democratic Senate primary.
THE ELECTIONS division of the
Secretary of State's office told can-
didates they would need 17,764 valid
signatures, but Bracy argued yester-
day that a strict interpretation of the
law requires much fewer than that.
The law says that in order to get on
the ballot, a primary candidate for the
U.S. Senate must collect signatures
totaling no less than one per cent of the
votes received by his party's secretary
of state candidate in the most recent
election. At least 100 signatures must be
from each of 20 or more counties.
In the last general election, 1976,
there was no secretary of state's con-
test.
BRACY SAID, therefore, that he
must present signatures totaling one
per cent of the vote received by the last
Democrat running in a Michigan elec-
tion. That was Mark Stuart of Marshall,
the losing candidate in a special elec-
tion last month to fill a vacant state
House seat in Jackson and Calhoun
counties.
See LOOPHOLE, Page 10 ,
15 months in
jail for Esmal
"uiy rPhoto by JuN KNOX
WARREN THORNTHWAIT leads the way as orientation students get their
first taste of University life.
Orientation studlents
learn 'U
By BRIAN BLANCHARD
A few orientees have already
picked up a sport that should ser-
ve them well during their first
autumn at the Univer-
sity-flinging a frisbee, past
maps and posters, the length of a
hall on the third floor of Taylor
House in South Quad.
The maps and posters ("Go
next door and meet your neigh-
bor! ") are part of the barrage of
schedules, directions, and lists
presented to the roughly 125
future University students during
their three-day stay in South
Quad.
* BARI RIEDEL, assistant to the
orientation director, explained
that the prospective doctors and
classicists from around the coun-
ways fast
try will arrive on campus in
staggered groups of 120-130 for a
total of 31 clays of Ann Arbor ex-
posure throughout the summer.
The first group rolled in Sunday
for the typical first day of tours
and introductory meetings.
Business begins the second day at
6:15 a.m. with a battery of tests in
the morning and group meetings
stretching through the afternoon.
On the third day time is set aside
for individual counseling and
registration.
Last night there was to be a
disco dance in the dorm with
WRCN playing records for the
freshpersons.
ON THE FIRST evening the
visitors have a chance to take a
bus tour of the central, athletic,
See FROSH, Page 11
By TheAssociated Press with Staff Reports
American student Sami Esmail was
sentenced yesterday to 15 months in
prison on his conviction of membership
in a Palestinian guerrilla group.
The Brooklyn-born Michigan State
University student, who is of
Palestinian descent, smiled when the
sentence was translated to him from
Hebrew - he could have received a
maximum of 10 years.41e raised two
fingers in a peace sign as he was taken
from the Tel Aviv district court room.
THE SENTENCE means the 24-year-
old Esmail has about nine months left
to serve. The prison term starts from
Dec. 21, 1977, the day he was arrested at
Ben-Gurion Airport as he arrived to
visit his ill father in the Israeli-occupied
West Bank of the Jordan River. His
father later died.
In announcing the sentence, Judge
Dov Levine said the court had con-
sidered the fact that Esmail had not
come to Israel on assignment for the
guerrilla organization - the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP)
Levine also noted the testimony of a
character witness and affidavits
received from Esmail's professors at
the East Lansing, Mich., campus,
where he was a graduate engineering
student.
"THE COURT believes that the ac-
cused was a serious student who
devoted most of his efforts to his
studies, not to radical activity," Levine
said.
The conviction, for "membership in
an enemy organization," was based on
three statements signed by Esmail
during questioning by Israeli police.
His attorney, Felicia Langer, com-
plained that the statements were for-
cibly extracted, but the court admitted
them into evidence.
The statements told how Esmail was
approached on the Michigan campus by
a representative of the PFLP and was
given a round-trip ticket to Libya in
August, 1976. In Libya he received
military training and heard lectures
about the Palestinian cause, the
statements said.
IN DETROIT, Abdeen Jabara,
Esmail's lawyer in the United States,
said "It's an outrage that he would
receive any sentence at all." Jabara
said the charges and conviction against
Esmail were "unwarranted", and the
sentence only added "insult to injury."
Jabara, who also defended Sirhan
Sirhan, called Esmail's trial "political"
and "an attempt to silence those who
speak out on Mideast issues."
A Freedom of Information Act
request has been filed with the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the
See ESMAIL, Page 7
Court sets
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme
Court cleared the way yesterday for a
demonstration by American Nazis in
the Chicago suburb of Skokie, where
7,000 survivors of World War II Nazi
concentration camps live.
Voting 7-2, the justices turned down a
request by Skokie officials that the
planned rally on June 25 be postponed
pending consideration of the village's
formal appeal.
THE COURT'S denial of the request,
which had been submitted to Justice
John Paul Stevens last week, was an-
way for Nazi march
nounced without comment by Chief camps during World War II.
Justice Warren Burger. IN YESTERDAY'S vote, Justices
Skokie, a lagely Jewish community Harry Blackmun and . William
of about 70,000 residents, has fought Rehnquist voted in the minority and
legal battles for more than a year at- said the June 25 rally should be post-
tempting to block any type of demon- poned pending consideration of the
stration by a small group of Nazis village's appeal.
called the National Socialist Party of Both justices said they wanted .to
America. study the Skokie case in light of a 1952
State and federal courts have all Supreme Court decision involving free
ruled against the village. Community speech and free expression limits. But
officials claim the demonstration would they were overruled.
cause particular harm to the 7,000 The Supreme Court's action lets
residents who were in concentration See HIGH, Page 7