BY ANA ACLE

 Weighing in on the legal dispute over Elian Gonzalez, three organizations from
 across the country have asked the appellate court judges to recognize a child's
 right to apply for asylum.

 Currently, the final decision rests with the attorney general.

 ``It is essential that the U.S. asylum process remain as open to children fleeing
 persecution as it is to adults,'' said Mary Diaz, executive director of the New York
 City-based Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, adding that
 the decision in the Elian case will have a far-reaching effect.

 Her organization filed one of four briefs accepted by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court in
 Atlanta, which heard oral arguments last week. Three argue for children's rights to
 asylum, another stresses a fit parent's right to speak for a minor.

 ``You can't pretend that just because a child crayoned his name on the
 application there wasn't an adult behind it,'' said Bruce Boyer, supervising
 attorney for the university's Children and Family Justice Center.

 The Court rejected an unknown number of other briefs on technicalities.

 PROVIDING INSIGHT

 Legal briefs seek to persuade judges to rule in their favor. Just how much the
 briefs will influence the judges is unknown, but they do provide insight into how
 the case is being watched by organizations around the country.

 The four briefs accepted were sent by Miami lawyer Martin Feigenbaum; Atlantic
 City lawyer John Geraghty Jr.; Northwestern University School of Law's Children
 and Family Justice Center in Chicago in conjunction with U.S. Rep. Sheila
 Jackson Lee, D-Texas; and collectively, the Lawyers Committee for Human
 Rights in New York City, the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center and the
 Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

 BAD PRECEDENT

 On the side of children's rights, the collective brief argues that leaving the fate of
 refugee children up to the discretion of the attorney general sets a bad precedent.
 They say INS has guidelines that apply to cases involving unaccompanied
 minors.

 The Northwestern University brief supports a parent's right to speak for a minor
 child.

 ``There's no question that kids of any age have the right to have their applications
 of asylum considered,'' Boyer said. ``The problem is figuring out when an
 application on behalf of a very young child has been properly filed, and you can't
 get around the central issue of who speaks for the child.

 ``My other point is that none of this really matters because neither the courts nor
 the government has the right to keep Juan Miguel Gonzalez from returning to
 Cuba, except while the legal proceeding is pending in the court,'' Boyer continued.
 ``So what if he's given asylum? If his father wants to take him home and has
 custody rights, he can take him to Cuba.''

 COMPELLING STORY

 Both the Miami and Atlantic City lawyers said the boy's survival story at sea
 compelled them to file the briefs.

 Geraghty, an Atlantic City immigration lawyer, said he wanted to make this point:
 ``If he does return to Cuba with his father, what are the possibilities of him coming
 back to the United States if he chooses to do so? What are the freedoms for him
 to do so?''

 His three-page brief said state law, not federal, usually determines a child's ``best
 interests'' and the court failed to recognize Elian's right to apply for asylum while
 he was in the jurisdiction of the United States.

 Feigenbaum, a former appellate judge's clerk who is married to a Cuban-American
 woman, formulated his brief after studying a copy of U.S. District Judge K.
 Michael Moore's decision.

 JUDICIAL ERROR

 Among his arguments, Feigenbaum said that Judge Moore erred in his ruling by
 failing to conduct a broader inquiry to determine if the immigration service had
 more information surrounding Elian's case or whether Congress would have
 approved Attorney General Janet Reno's decision.

 He wouldn't say whether he believes the child should stay in the United States or
 return to Cuba with his father.

 ``I feel that the child is entitled to much more due process than he has received
 before I would be able to formulate an opinion as to what's best for him,'' he said.

 One of the rejected briefs was filed by the Cuban American Bar Association
 (CABA). The group argued that, under Cuban law, children are wards of the state
 -- and not their parents. The brief was rejected because it was filed after the
 expedited deadline, said Oscar Marrero, CABA president.

 However, much of that legal argument was incorporated into the Miami relatives'
 25-page response on Tuesday to a motion requesting that Elian's father replace
 the relatives as his son's representative.