The Nation - News from March 21, 1989

A federal judge, turning aside a plea for “desperate measures” against drug-related violence, temporarily barred Washington from enforcing a curfew aimed at keeping most teen-agers away from open-air drug markets late at night. U.S. District Judge Charles B. Richey, in issuing a 10-day temporary restraining order at the request of the American Civil Liberties Union, ruled that the overnight curfew law could unfairly penalize thousands of youths and result in “permanent and irreparable injury” to those detained unfairly. The District of Columbia Council’s emergency law would have banned youths under the age of 18 from gathering on city streets after 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and after midnight Friday and Saturday. The curfew would have ended at 6 a.m. daily.