WHITE HOUSE AVOIDS GAY RIGHTS DISPUTE . . .

The Clinton Administration will not join the court fight against Colorado's ban onlaws that would protect homosexuals from discrimination. Attorney General Janet Reno said she would not file an amicus brief supporting the elimination of the ban, as many civil and gay rights groups had urged, because "there was no federal program or statute involved." Disappointed activists accused the Justice Department of running away from an important civil rights issue for political reasons. While Reno denied politics had anything to do with her decision, TIME legal correspondent Adam Cohen says that politics had to be a consideration. "We wouldn't have seen this in the early months of the Clinton Administration, when they were taking on things likethe ban on gays in the military. But now the Justice Department is trimming its sails a bit, taking a more conservative position on things, and I have to think it's with an eye toward '96."