Court Ruling

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court sent a strong hint yesterday that high school students in Maryland and other states cannot complain that their rights are violated if they are forced to do community service -- without pay -- to graduate.In one of hundreds of orders it issued in its first formal sitting of a new term, the court rebuffed a constitutional challenge from Bethlehem, Pa., to community service -- a duty imposed now in scores of school districts throughout the country.In Maryland, high school students across the state must do 75 hours of community service as a condition for graduation.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court yesterday cleared away much, if not all, doubt that companies have the right to cut off or sharply lower the health coverage they provide for retired workers.The justices voted to leave intact a broad ruling by a federal appeals court that --ed the hopes of more than 600 pensioners -- including many Marylanders -- of regaining free lifetime health benefits from the company that formerly was Maryland Cup Co.The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., the court that decides federal issues for an area including Maryland, ruled in September that a federal law governing workers' benefits gives companies a right to amend or terminate employee benefit plans -- a right that the appeals court said exists automatically, unless the company voluntarily surrenders it.By declining to review that decision, the Supreme Court did not endorse it directly.

Maryland's highest court paved the way Tuesday for development work to resume on Baltimore's "superblock" by dismissing a challenge from a local group that wanted the court to force the city to seek new proposals. Maryland's Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's quasi-public development agency, acted properly in selecting Lexington Square Partnership to build a mixed-use project within an area bounded roughly by Lexington, Howard and Fayette streets and Park Avenue, an area assembled by the city.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, heeding a plea by the state of Maryland, agreed yesterday to spell out the authority of police to order all passengers out of cars they have stopped, to control occupants' movements.At issue is the constitutionality of a police order, after a car is stopped for a traffic violation, that all the passengers get out -- a move that the state contends is required to assure police safety.Maryland's highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled in August that the Constitution's Fourth Amendment does not allow police to routinely order passengers out of vehicles.

Just as we're trying to figure out the sudden departure Police CommissionerFrederick H. Bealefeld IIIcomes the stark reminder that we're still not quite done with a city chief fired more than seven years ago. Kevin P. Clark, fired back when Martin O'Malley was mayor, in 2004, still has a claim pending before the state's highest court. He wants money, and according to his attorney, wouldn't mind getting his old job back. This is the guy who the mayor sent armed SWAT members to remove from the police headquarters building on East Fayette Street.

WASHINGTON - A unanimous Supreme Court put on hold yesterday the Florida Supreme Court ruling that legalized manual recounts of presidential ballots - but gave the state court a chance to shore up its ruling. The justices, after a weekend of closed-door discussions, shied away from a final ruling on Texas Gov. George W. Bush's challenge to the state supreme court ruling of Nov. 21. Bush's appeal has sought judicial ratification of his certified Florida victory. Instead, the nine justices reached a compromise that did little, if anything, to advance the claims of Bush or Vice President Al Gore in the fight for Florida's 25 electoral votes, vital to secure the presidency.

WASHINGTON -- In a setback for the rights of gays and lesbians, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that city and county governments have full authority to bar local officials from acting to protect homosexuals against discrimination.Because such a ban is "of purely local scope," the appeals court said, it does not run afoul of a 1996 Supreme Court ruling on gay rights. That ruling struck down a Colorado referendum that barred all gay rights laws at every level of state and local government.

KIEV, Ukraine - The Supreme Court temporarily blocked publication yesterday of disputed presidential election results naming Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovych the winner, bolstering demands by pro-Western contender Viktor A. Yushchenko's supporters that he be recognized as president-elect. Many observers interpreted the court's technical ruling as blocking the immediate inauguration of Yanukovych, who is backed by Moscow. "This announcement of the Supreme Court means one thing - the people win!"

Many black, Hispanic and civil rights leaders have expressed dismay -- we think too much dismay -- at this week's Supreme Court ruling that so-called "majority-minority" congressional districts (and by inference such state and local legislative districts) are unconstitutional if they go to extreme lengths to pack minority voters into a district.Yet this was not the real blow the Supreme Court inflicted on the civil rights movement in the last days of its 1992-1993 term. Two days earlier, the court made it increasingly difficult for minorities to win claims of discrimination in employment.

WASHINGTON -- Taking on a case with wide consequences for U.S. companies that send goods overseas for assembly, the Supreme Court said yesterday that it will rule on the government's power to impose import fees when those goods are brought back to the United States for sale.The court, accepting new cases it will decide in the term that begins Monday, agreed to hear a Treasury Department appeal in a dispute with Haggar Clothing Co. The dispute involves trousers that are made of U.S. goods but are assembled in Mexico and treated during the assembly process to make them into wrinkle-free, wash-and-wear garments.