Across the Nation

Court hears arguments in warrant case

WASHINGTON - Charles McArthur admits that given the chance, he would have flushed the drugs down the toilet before police could find the stash under his couch.

What brought his arrest on minor drug charges to the Supreme Court yesterday was the way police made sure McArthur never got that opportunity: They kept him outside his own house while they got a search warrant.

The justices will decide if that was an unreasonable search and seizure under the Constitution, or whether, as the police claim, it was an efficient and humane way to preserve evidence of a crime. A decision is expected by summer.

Several justices pressed McArthur's attorney to say what police did wrong, with Justice Stephen Breyer even suggesting the arresting officer might deserve a medal for patience.

"Why isn't what he did a good thing?" Breyer asked.

The case began three years ago in Sullivan, Ill., when McArthur's estranged wife arranged for police to wait outside the couple's trailer while she moved out. As she left, she told the officers she had seen her husband hide marijuana under a couch.

Sullivan Deputy Police Chief John Love knocked on the trailer door, told McArthur about the accusation and requested permission to search. McArthur came outside, denied he had drugs inside but refused to allow police inside without a warrant.

"If I were a police officer I would think, 'He's going to turn right around and flush it down the toilet,'" if left alone, Breyer said yesterday.

Yet the officer did not arrest McArthur immediately and did not go in without a warrant. Instead, the two men waited together outside McArthur's trailer for some two hours, except for chaperoned visits inside so McArthur could use the phone and fetch his cigarettes.

McArthur was arrested as soon as police went inside and found the drugs right where McArthur's wife said they would be.

He fought the misdemeanor charge of possessing less than 2.5 grams of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, and lower courts agreed with him. He also testified after his arrest that he would have gotten rid of the drugs as soon as he got the chance.

The case is one of several the court has taken recently that examine the limits of police powers to hunt for drugs.

Businessmen try to end war on drugs

LOS ANGELES - Their political operatives call them "the funders," a trio of enormously wealthy businessmen who are united behind one idea: That the war on drugs is a failure. And they want to end it.

So with their money, consultants and sophisticated polling, they are transforming drug policy in America with a steady stream of ballot initiatives about medical marijuana, incarceration and drug-related forfeitures. They are winning at the ballot box and in the courts.

The only other issue that has seen as much activity in the states through the ballot initiative process is campaign finance reform.

Their latest and most ambitious salvo is aimed at California, where voters are being asked to support a broad ballot initiative that virtually would bar authorities from sending nonviolent drug users to jail. It is modeled after a similar measure, the first of its kind, that passed in Arizona.

The most recent polls show the California measure passing - this in a state that is tough on crime and has the largest prison population per capita in the world. If successful, the California measure could signal a profound change in society's approach to drug abusers - as people needing help, not as criminals to be locked away.

"We know the federal government is totally incapable of reform," said John Sperling, who founded the for-profit adult education institute known as the University of Phoenix and is one of three financial backers of the initiative. "The politicians in Washington, they live in fear of the right-wing moralists. So we're going around them."

The initiative, Proposition 36, is vigorously opposed by a loose coalition of prosecutors, narcotics officers, prison guards, politicians and judges who operate so-called drug courts. They decry the measure as "dangerous and misleading" and a stealth effort to decriminalize possession of illegal drugs.

Actor Martin Sheen, who plays a president on the television series "The West Wing" and whose son Charlie was addicted to cocaine, is serving as honorary chairman of the no-on-Prop 36 group. He said in a statement: "We're not going to help drug abusers by decriminalizing dangerous and highly addictive drugs like heroin, crack cocaine, PCP and methamphetamine - but that's essentially what this initiative does."

To which Sperling answers: baloney.

The backers purposefully have not supported publicly a ballot initiative in Alaska that calls for the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use. They point out, as their opponents do, that simple possession of marijuana in many states such as California is a misdemeanor, punishable by something akin to a $100 parking ticket. There is rarely jail time.

White House turns 200 with celebration

WASHINGTON - The occupants of the White House usually snag the attention and headlines. But this month the building gets a turn in the spotlight. The White House turned 200 yesterday, and a monthlong birthday party has been planned, inlcuding presidential impersonators, historical lectures and a black-tie dinner.

The White House is quintessentially American, an 18-acre residence that is part Pentagon, part Smithsonian, part Graceland. Its a home for the first family and its pets, an office for the daily affairs and state functions of the executive branch and a living museum that welcomes up to 6,000 visitors daily.

WASHINGTON - The White House gates swing open, and some of the most important people in the nation are already inside, conducting business in one of the most recognizable places on Earth. But first things first on this recent morning: A few hundred souls in line outside want to take a look around.

No other home of a major head of state is as open to the public as 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Visitors have included King David Kalakaua of what is now Hawaii, who in 1874 became the first ruling king to visit; Pope John Paul II, who in 1979 became the first pope to take a tour; and Arlene Horstmann, who teaches fourth-grade in Menasha, Wis., and was making the pilgrimage for her fourth time.

"It makes me feel proud to be an American," Horstmann said Saturday as she stood in the driveway of the White House's North Portico, just off Pennsylvania Avenue, the dazzling columns towering above her like a giant, picture-perfect wedding cake. "I'm still amazed."

The occupants of the White House usually snag the attention and headlines. This month, though, the building itself gets a turn in the spotlight. The White House turned 200 yesterday, and a month-long birthday party has been planned, complete with performances by presidential impersonators, historical lectures and a black-tie dinner featuring the president and some of his predecessors. It was on this afternoon two centuries ago - Nov. 1, 1800 - that the nation's second president, John Adams, pulled up to the mansion in a horse-drawn carriage and became the first chief executive to occupy what his wife, Abigail Adams, would later describe as a "house for the ages."

At the time, the house was a work in progress. The cornerstone had been laid just eight years before, a polished brass plate commemorating the occasion pressed into the mortar.

The muddy site of Adams' new home was the fruit of George Washington's dream for a grand palace at the heart of the new federal city. It took an army of workers - including Scottish stonecutters, slaves from nearby plantations and gangs of brickmakers - nearly 10 years to complete.

Since then, much has changed at the White House, yet much has stayed the same. It is the paradox of its two-century history: The hands of the clock seem to move forward and backward at the same time. In the East Room, where the legendary 1797 portrait of George Washington hangs on the east wall, where Theodore Roosevelt kept a sumo wrestling pad for matches, is also where, Friday, President Clinton addressed concerns of African-American community leaders.

The White House is quintessentially American, an 18-acre residence that is part Pentagon, part Smithsonian, part Graceland. The house is a fully staffed home for the first family and its pets, an office for the daily affairs and state functions of the executive branch and a living museum that swells daily with up to 6,000 visitors.

That the home of the president of the United States is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday - from 8 a.m. to noon, virtually year-round, free of charge - while the business of a nation is conducted inside remains a hallmark of democracy in action. Thomas Jefferson was even known to answer the door in his morning robe.

Such personal greetings are a thing of the past, but the gesture is not lost on tourists such as Horstmann, one of the roughly 1.5 million people who take the public tour of the White House each year.