Wounded Knee Hearing Canceled as 3 Justices Disqualify Themselves

The Supreme Court, with three justices disqualifying themselves, has canceled arguments in a case stemming from an armed confrontation in 1973 between federal agents and Indians at Wounded Knee, S.D., court sources said Tuesday.

The court had been scheduled to hear arguments in the case today. But sources who requested an-onymity said Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Antonin Scalia disqualified themselves.

That left only five members available to hear arguments, one short of the required quorum of six. The court had announced in February that it would hear arguments in the case to consider killing a lawsuit against government and military officials accused of violating rights of Indians.

Lawyers for the Indians had asked Rehnquist to bow out because he served in the Justice Department in the Nixon Administration and because, like O’Connor, he is a friend of former Atty. Gen. Richard G. Kleindienst, a defendant in the Indians’ suit.

Scalia worked in the Justice Department in the mid-1970s, joining the department shortly after the incident.

The Wounded Knee case will remain on the court’s docket and arguments could be rescheduled. In other action Tuesday, Illinois Deputy Atty. Gen. Michael J. Hayes told the court that states must be allowed to protect the right of parents to consult with their young daughters who seek abortions. He argued that an Illinois law requiring that parents be notified at least 24 hours before teen-age girls abort their pregnancies should be reinstated.