By RICK BRAGG

          ATLANTA, May 11 -- In pointed questions to lawyers for both sides
          in the battle over the future of Elián González, three federal judges wondered
          today how a 6-year-old who cannot even sign his full name could apply for political
          asylum but questioned whether sending him back to communist Cuba was in his
          best interests, regardless of his father's fitness as a parent.

          Judge J. L. Edmondson, a conservative judge appointed to the United States
          Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit by President Ronald Reagan, noted that it
          was not uncommon for courts to rule that a child's best interests override the rights
          of a parent, as in the case of parents who refuse their child a doctor's care because
          of their religious beliefs.

          Judge Edmondson, who twice referred to Cuba as a "communist, totalitarian state,"
          said it was not that such parents did not believe they were acting in their child's
          behalf, but that their actions seemed "so conspicuously in conflict with the needs of
          the child."

          During lulls in the arguments, some 100 protesters outside the courtroom could be
          heard chanting, "Free Elián!" Later, as lawyers for the government and for Elián's
          father left the courtroom, the protesters shouted, "Communist!" over and over.
          The outbursts, which have been commonplace in Miami for months now,
          puzzled many in Atlanta as they walked past the protesters.

          Judge Edmondson, the senior member of the three-judge panel that heard the
          appeal of a decision by a federal district judge in Miami that, in effect, denied a
          request by Elián's relatives in that city for a political asylum hearing, said before
          today's hearing that a decision would probably come in a few weeks.

          Lawyers for the Immigration and Naturalization Service have repeatedly
          argued that Elián is simply not old enough to understand the application for political
          asylum that he signed in a childlike scrawl after it appeared that federal officials
          were planning to send him back to Cuba to be with his father, Juan Miguel
          González. And, the lawyers for the government argued again today, only the
          father can speak for his son.

          This hearing may be the last chance the Miami relatives have of keeping
          Elián in the United States in defiance of his father's wishes, legal experts
          said.

          United States immigration officials and the federal district court in Miami
          have already rejected the request for any asylum hearing filed on Elián's
          behalf by his great-uncle Lázaro González, who took care of the boy
          after he was found clinging to an inner tube in the Atlantic.

          Elian was rescued on Nov. 25 after his mother drowned in an effort to
          cross from Cuba to Florida.

          "I'm sure Elián González is a very bright and intelligent 6-year-old, but he
          didn't even have the ability to sign his last name on the asylum petition,"
          said Judge Charles R. Wilson, an appointee of President Clinton.

          The panel, whose third member is Judge Joel F. Dubina, who was
          appointed by President George Bush and is considered a moderate, has
          several options, legal experts and lawyers for both sides say. It could rule
          that immigration officials were correct in denying the boy an asylum
          hearing based on his age, even though immigration laws guarantee an
          asylum hearing for "any alien."

          Or it could order immigration officials to give Elián a hearing, even though
          the boy is now in the legal custody of his father in a secluded federal
          retreat in Maryland. The reunion followed an armed federal raid on the
          relatives' home in Miami in the predawn hours of April 22.

          Or it could ask immigration officials to speak with the boy about his
          wishes, but not in a formal hearing.

          If the court rules against the Miami relatives, it could also lift an injunction
          imposed by the same three judges on April 20 barring Elián from leaving
          the country. That action would allow father and son to return to Cuba.

          There is no guarantee that the full court -- there are 12 active judges on
          the 11th Circuit bench -- or the United States Supreme Court will hear
          the case if the three-judge panel rules against the Miami family.

          In an unusual address to the crowded courtroom just minutes before the
          hearing, Judge Edmondson, not yet dressed in his robe, cautioned
          lawyers and onlookers that they should not try to draw conclusions from
          the panel's questions.

          "It is entirely possible that a judge may make a statement or ask a
          question that is the exact opposite of what he is thinking, because he may
          want to see how the lawyers respond to it," Judge Edmondson said.

          But in the hearing, which lasted less than an hour and a half, it seemed at
          least that lawyers for Lázaro González had found a sympathetic ear in
          Judge Edmondson.

          He compared the case, in theory, to that of a child who had been
          rescued from a communist country in the former Soviet Union by a
          mother who gave her life to deliver him to freedom.

          Kendall Coffey, a lawyer for the Miami family, said Elián would be
          paraded around Cuba, more a trophy than a boy growing up in his old
          life there, and his father would have little to say about the child's life.

          "There is no parent in Cuba who controls what happens to his or her
          child," Mr. Coffey said, "and there is no power in this country that can
          protect this child if he is removed to Cuba."

          But Gregory Craig, a lawyer for Juan Miguel González, said the boy's
          father was not being manipulated by the government of President Fidel
          Castro and was free to "openly express his feelings and his opinions."

          Asked by the panel why it had taken his client five months to come to the
          United States to seek the return of his son, Mr. Craig said Mr. González
          tried to work through his own government to get Elián returned to him.

          Judge Wilson seemed skeptical of how Elián could have understood a
          complicated form requesting an asylum hearing.

          He also questioned whether, considering the fact that Elián is now in the
          custody of his father, immigration officials could even accept an
          application filed by someone who no longer has custody of the child.

          The question of Elián's request for asylum may be moot if the judges
          accept the premise that he never filed for asylum, that he only scratched
          his name on the form because he was told to do so.

          "It really wasn't Elián who filed an asylum application; it was Lázaro
          González who filed the application for him," said Bernard Perlmutter,
          director of the University of Miami Children and Youth Law Clinic.
          "People other than the father were making claims on behalf of the child."

          "I would think the court has to be swayed by the paramount interest of
          the child," Mr. Perlmutter said. "Are the facts in this case sufficient to
          warrant an intrusion in the father's rights to speak for his son? I don't
          think there is sufficient evidence that anyone other than Juan Miguel
          González can speak for Elián in this case."

          To ultimately win, even if the case does wind up in an asylum hearing,
          lawyers for the boy's Miami relatives must prove that Elián was being
          persecuted for political reasons and that he was afraid of that
          persecution, legal experts said.

          That, for a 6-year-old boy, would seem unlikely.

          "There is no objective basis for an independent asylum claim," a
          spokesman for the Justice Department said.