Judge Backs SBC, Rejects Parts of '96 Telecom Act   Regulation:
Ruling faults Congress for convicting Baby Bells of antitrust
violations.   In the latest assault on the oft-maligned
Telecommunications Act of 1996, a federal judge in Texas on
Wednesday struck down as unconstitutional some key provisions of
the landmark law designed to bring competition to the local
phone industry.  The ruling is not expected to have any
immediate impact on the process of opening local phone markets
to competition, however. That process has already been stalled
by previous challenges that are destined to be decided by the
U.S. Supreme Court. But it may allow local phone companies to
start offering other services, including long-distance calling,
to their own customers.  SBC Communications, the San Antonio-
based parent of Pacific Bell and Southwestern Bell, complained
in July that the law improperly discriminated against it and the
four other regional Bell operating companies--the so-called Baby
Bells--because it singled them ou