Justices Won’t Scuttle Unabomber Charges Kaczynski Claims News Leaks Make Fair Trial Impossible

Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski, who says his prosecution is so tainted from news leaks that the government has forfeited its right to make him stand trial, lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday.

The justices, without comment, refused to give Kaczynski a new chance to argue in a lower court that his prosecution should be scuttled.

“The government’s conduct has made the word ‘Unabomber’ and the name Theodore Kaczynski interchangeable,” his appeal contended.

Kaczynski, arrested in Montana last April, has been charged in eight of the 16 bombings linked to the Unabomber and could face the death penalty if convicted. He is being held in a Sacramento, Calif., jail.

Prosecutors said last month they had found a diary kept by Kaczynski. It contains “detailed admissions” to each of the 16 explosions that killed three people and wounded 23 since 1978.

Last April, a federal judge in Montana refused to bar government prosecution of Kaczynski despite leaks about the case by unnamed government officials.

U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell called the news leaks “entirely regrettable,” but said he saw no evidence they were part of an intentional effort to prejudice the public against Kaczynski.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it lacked jurisdiction to hear Kaczynski’s appeal of Lovell’s ruling.

Kaczynski’s appeal to the Supreme Court was filed in April by his Montana public defender before Kaczynski was charged in the Unabomber attacks.

Also Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court:

Refused for now to consider whether Congress had the authority to make it a federal crime to obstruct the entrances to an abortion clinic. Last year the court, on a 5-4 vote, struck down a federal Gun Free School Zones Act and said Congress could not regulate an activity that was not substantially involved with interstate commerce.

Anti-abortion activists say Congress exceeded its authority when it extended federal law to cover clinics. But the justices dismissed appeals from five Wisconsin anti-abortion activists raising the claim.

Refused to limit the reach of the Whitewater prosecution. Former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker contended that independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr exceeded his authority when he prosecuted Tucker and several associates for obtaining fraudulent loans.

But a U.S. appeals court in St. Louis said Starr was authorized to look into “all matters” related to the collapse of the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan. The justices refused to hear an appeal.