Juvenile Curfew in U.S. Capital Voided by Judge

A federal judge on Wednesday barred the District of Columbia from enforcing a juvenile curfew law aimed at curbing drug-related violence in the nation’s capital.

U.S. District Judge Charles Richey said that the law, which would have kept people under age 18 off the streets from 11 p.m to 6 a.m., violates the constitutional rights of thousands of the city’s juveniles. The curfew would have begun at midnight on Friday and Saturday.

The Temporary Curfew Emergency Act of 1989 “subjects the district’s juveniles to virtual house arrest each night” and “is a bull in a china shop of constitutional values,” Richey said. “However laudable the objectives which motivated its adoption, the act is invalid on its face and may not be enforced.”

Law Contained Exemptions

The curfew statute, signed on April 14 by Mayor Marion Barry, would have been in effect for 90 days. It contained exemptions for teen-agers returning home from work, school or church-sanctioned functions and for those traveling with parents.

The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union obtained a temporary restraining order against the law on April 20, and the district government agreed to an extension until the court reached a final decision.

The law “was more of a response to political pressure than it was a realistic approach to the problems,” Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the local ACLU, said. Barry was not available for comment.