Justices

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court rebuffed yesterday a move by AIDS patients and people infected with HIV to use federal law to gain equal health insurance benefits. Without explanation, the justices refused to consider an appeal by two Chicago men who have tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus and claim that their insurance company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by discriminating against them. Their medical insurer, Mutual of Omaha, sets a lifetime ceiling on benefits for policy holders who have acquired immune deficiency syndrome or AIDS-related diseases, but the company sets higher ceilings for treatment of other illnesses.

WASHINGTON -- Acting swiftly and unanimously on a dispute that reaches factories and offices all across the nation, the Supreme Court gave female workers sweeping new legal protection yesterday against smutty words and gestures on the job.The court, in its first ruling on sexual harassment since that issue gained national prominence during Senate hearings on Justice Clarence Thomas' nomination in 1991, said women claiming to be harassed in the workplace do...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court seemed poised yesterday to give states and cities clear power to restrict protests outside abortion clinics, but then a lawyer for the state of Colorado put the whole issue in doubt. Holding a hearing on a major case on anti-abortion demonstrations, the fourth in the past seven years, the justices again searched for ways to clarify the constitutional rules governing the sidewalk wars outside clinics. Seldom, however, do a Supreme Court hearing's tone and direction and the justices' apparent sentiments shift as abruptly as they did yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- After a summer's breather, the Supreme Court surged right back yesterday into the heat of the constitutional controversy over government aid to religion.Although the court's last ruling on the subject in late June provoked angry exchanges among the justices, they reopened the dispute on the first day of their new term by agreeing to hear two new appeals.One involves a deaf boy in Tucson, Ariz., who has been denied a state-paid sign language interpreter, solely because he goes to a parochial high school.

WASHINGTON -- Going further than ever before to insulate states from federal laws, a deeply divided Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the states are immune -- unless they consent -- to being sued in state courts by individuals or companies seeking to enforce those laws.The court issued the final rulings of its annual term amid a powerful new demonstration of a five-justice majority's commitment to expanding states' rights -- an effort that has continued throughout this decade.That has been a heated effort, with the justices arguing and rearguing one of the core issues fought over at the time the Constitution was written 211 years ago: what powers the states gave up when the national government was formed, and what they kept.

WASHINGTON - After storming the constitutional ramparts repeatedly at the end of its last term, the Supreme Court, fresh from a summer off, goes back into session today to face a new array of controversies. "This is going to be another blockbuster season at the court," says Kathryn J. Rodgers, president of the NOW Legal Defense Fund, a women's rights group that is monitoring a series of civil rights cases before the court. The justices were visibly exhausted in late June by the term-closing labors of deciding major constitutional disputes over abortion, school prayer, homosexuality, aid to parochial schools, and the rights of women, gays, parents and criminal suspects.

WASHINGTON -- In a surprise move, the Supreme Court agreed yesterday to take up the cases of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to decide whether they have been wrongly held for years without a fair chance to plead their innocence. In a brief order before adjourning for the summer, the justices announced that they would hear an appeal they had turned down in early April. The case hinges on whether "foreign citizens imprisoned indefinitely" by the U.S. military could go to court and, if so, whether a judge could free them from "unlawful confinement."

WASHINGTON -- Striking down an antitrust rule nearly a century old, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that it is no longer automatically unlawful for manufacturers and distributors to agree on setting minimum retail prices. The decision will give producers significantly more leeway, though not unlimited power, to dictate retail prices and to restrict the flexibility of discounters. Five justices said the new rule could, in some instances, lead to more competition and better service. But four dissenting justices agreed with the submission of 37 states and consumer groups that the abandonment of the old rule would lead to significantly higher prices and less competition for consumer and other goods.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, in a rare unanimous decision on abortion, said yesterday that states may require girls under age 18 to tell a parent at least two days before having an abortion so long as the law also permits doctors to act quickly in medical emergencies. The ruling resolves, for now, a New Hampshire case without making a significant change in the law. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in what might be her final opinion, set out a compromise solution that gives both sides most of what they asked for. State lawmakers wanted to ensure that a pregnant girl would speak to her parent and then wait at least 48 hours before going ahead with an abortion.

WASHINGTON - Angel Raich smokes marijuana every two hours to control pain from an inoperable brain tumor and other ailments, and she sees only one outcome if the U.S. Supreme Court allows federal agents to prosecute medical marijuana users. "If they decide against me, it means they will be giving me a death sentence," the 39-year-old mother of two from Oakland, Calif., said after her suit against Attorney General John Ashcroft was heard yesterday before the nation's high court. But a skeptical Supreme Court appeared uneasy about taking Raich's side.