Senate approves antibusing bill

The Senate, on a 57-37 vote, approved the most far-reaching antibusing legislation ever to move so far through Congress, although chances of House passage this year appear slim.

The antibusing provisions were attached to an otherwise routine $2.45 billion Justice Department authorization for 1982. They would:

* Prohibit federal courts from ordering for desegregation purposes the busing of schoolchildren beyond five miles or 15 minutes each way.

* Prohibit the Justice Department from initiating court suits designed to impose busing for desegregation purposes.

* Permit the Justice Department to seek to remove or reduce busing orders already in effect.

Opponents argued the restrictions on the Justice Department and the courts would be unconstitutional. Sen. Dale Bumpers (D) of Arkansas called it ''a continuing, sinister, and devious attack on the Constitution,'' and hewarned future Congresses might try to bar the courts from hearing such issues as abortion, search and seizure rights, and prayer in schools.

Sen. Lowell Weicker Jr. (R) of Connecticut had kept the legislation tied up for more than a year, and he insisted it would not clear Congress this year. The bill now returns to the House, where its antibusing provisions are likely to be removed.