The Nation - News from Aug. 20, 1986

A divided U.S. Court of Appeals voted to uphold the constitutionality of a District of Columbia law prohibiting protesters from carrying banners or placards within 500 feet of a foreign embassy. The lawsuit was filed after demonstrators protesting the downing of a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 jet by a Soviet fighter in September, 1983, were turned away from the Soviet Embassy. While upholding the district ordinance 2 to 1, the appellate panel did vote to send the case back to a trial court to determine whether police violated the law when they arrested protesters who said they wanted to pray silently on the sidewalk in front of the embassy.