Court Rejects Challenge to Abortion Ruling
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a challenge to its 1973 ruling legalizing abortion by the woman once known as "Jane Roe," who was at the center of the historic case. Without comment, justices declined to hear the appeal from Norma McCorvey and thus dodged a highly charged political debate for now. McCorvey's protest of Texas' abortion ban led to the Roe v. Wade ruling establishing a constitutional right to abortion.
Court Considers Property Owners' Rights
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court struggled Tuesday to balance the rights of property owners against the goals of town officials who want to sweep away old neighborhoods and turn the land over to private developers. Riverfront residents who are suing the town of New London, Conn., say their working-class neighborhood is slated for destruction primarily to build an office complex that will benefit a pharmaceutical company that built its research and development headquarters nearby.
Court Curbs State Prison Segregation
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court extended its skepticism of government policies that classify by race, ruling that state prisons cannot segregate inmates even temporarily except under the most extraordinary circumstances. The 5-3 decision Wednesday set aside a lower court ruling for California that said prisons should have wide leeway to impose race restrictions for safety reasons. It all but ended a long-standing policy in California and called into question prison restrictions in two other states.
Court Won't Review Utah Park Policy Case
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to review a National Park Service policy of asking visitors to avoid walking near Utah's Rainbow Bridge out of respect for American Indian religion. Justices let stand a lower court ruling that dismissed a 2000 lawsuit charging the policy at the world's largest natural bridge unconstitutionally endorses religion. Two visitors, Evelyn Johnson and Earl DeWaal, had alleged they were forced to leave the area and threatened with arrest several times. A prehistoric altar once stood near the arch, but it was destroyed in the 1930s.
Court Won't Remove Judge From Suit
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the efforts of Interior Department officials to remove a federal judge from overseeing an 8-year-old lawsuit by American Indian landowners seek an accounting of trust funds set up on their behalf. The suit alleges the government mismanaged oil, gas, timber and grazing royalties going back more than a century on behalf of more than 300,000 American Indians.
Court to Hear Protective Clothing Dispute
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider whether meat-processing plants must pay their slaughterhouse workers for the time it takes to change into protective clothing and walk to their work stations.
Court Date Set in Arthur Andersen Appeal
HOUSTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the Arthur Andersen accounting firm's appeal of its obstruction-of-justice conviction. The April 27 arguments will be the last scheduled for the court this term and will focus on how the law was presented to a federal jury in Houston, the court said Tuesday. The firm was found guilty of obstructing justice by destroying Enron Corp.-related documents before the Houston-based energy giant's December 2001 collapse.
Court Won't Review Slaying Confession
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to consider throwing out a confession from a former Navy seaman charged with killing a shipmate during the Vietnam War. Without comment, justices let stand an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that allowed the confession. Seven of the 11 judges concluded that Michael Edward LeBrun, 58, understood his rights during interrogation by Navy Criminal Investigative Service officers.
Court Won't Review Ban on Sex Toys
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to review the constitutionality of a state law banning the sale of sex toys, rejecting an appeal that said consumers have a right to sexual privacy. Without comment, justices let stand a lower court ruling that said Alabama had a right to police the sale of devices that can be sexually stimulating.
Rehnquist to Miss High Court's Opening
WASHINGTON -- Ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist will be absent from the bench when the Supreme Court returns for the second half of its term next week, the court announced Friday.
