Committee Won't Study Perdew Case

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24--The Senate Constitutional Rights Subcommittee has turned down a request from Sen. Harrison A. Williams (D-N.J.) that it investigate the case of John W. Perdew '64.

Perdew, along with three other college students, is currently being held without ball in the country jail in Americus, Ga., on a charge of incitement to insurrection.

In a letter written to Williams Tuesday, Sen. Sam J. Ervin (D-N.C.), the subcommittee's chairman, explained that the group has no jurisdiction over cases which may be solved by normal judicial procedures. The subcommittee is allowed to investigate, Ervin said, only to demonstrate "the need for legislation" in the abuse of constitutional rights.

The chairmen explained that the Perdew case may be solved when a three-member panel of judges rules on the question of ball next Thursday, Because these were apparently the only grounds for refusing to investigate the Americus case, Ervin was forced by the other members of the subcommittee to add a postscript to his letter. In the postscript, Ervin said the subcommittee would consider investigating the constitutionality of the imprisonment pending the outcome of the October 31 trial.

Ervin's concession has little meaning, however. According to federal statutes, any case tried by a three-member panel of judges may be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the three judges,--one a segregationist, one a liberal, and one of uncertain conviction--refuse to set bail for the four prisoners, the case will be appealed to the high court immediately.

An informed source in the subcommittee said the case would "definitely" be won in the Supreme Court if tried there. In a previous Supreme Court ruling on these same Georgia state laws, however, the Court refused to pass on their constitutionality.