Lower Courts

For those in favor of restricting handguns - as we surely are - the agreement by the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider a long-standing handgun ban in the city of Washington would seem to justify a cautious sigh of relief. It raises the hope that the justices will reverse a disastrous federal appeals court ruling invalidating the ban. But it's hard to predict how, or even whether, the justices will ultimately rule. In March, a 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declared that Washington's three-decades-old law banning handguns in homes - while allowing rifles or shotguns - was unconstitutional.

Ruling in two capital punishment cases, the U.S. Supreme Court rightly recognized Monday that defendants facing the death penalty should be afforded every chance to challenge a state's decision to execute them. The death penalty is the ultimate punishment, and courts must proceed with the utmost care and deliberation in evaluating a defendant's claim for relief. The court reinforced that principle in a Florida case, while putting off discussion of the bigger issue, the constitutionality of lethal injection, the execution method used in Maryland and 36 other states.

Two journalists could be jailed as early as this week after the U.S. Supreme Court declined yesterday to hear their appeals of a ruling finding them in contempt of court for refusing to disclose their sources. The decision could have a chilling effect on both reporters who rely on confidential sources to do their jobs and sources who come forward with sensitive information only because their identities will be protected, journalists said yesterday. Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times were held in contempt of court last fall for refusing to tell a grand jury the source or sources who told them the identity of a covert CIA agent.

The tobacco industry won a resounding victory yesterday when a federal appeals court barred the Justice Department from seeking forfeiture of $280 billion in allegedly ill-gotten gains as part of its fraud and racketeering case against the top cigarette makers. In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled the government may not seek "disgorgement" of illicit profits in civil suits filed under the racketeering statute known as RICO. The decision does not end the huge case - the government can still seek other sanctions - but it wipes out by far the most worrisome threat from the tobacco companies' point of view.

WASHINGTON - Just two weeks before America's voters are expected to leave Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court revived a legal challenge to an unusual redistricting plan in Texas that could shift six House seats to the GOP. In a one-line order yesterday, the justices told a lower court to reconsider whether the plan, the handiwork of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, is unconstitutional. The ruling came too late to affect next month's races, but it could lead to a new congressional district map for the 2006 elections.

Showing deference to the president's right to seek private outside advice, the Supreme Court refused yesterday to force Vice President Dick Cheney to disclose records from an energy task force that critics complained was too heavily influenced by corporate executives. Writing for the court's 7-2 majority, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy noted "the paramount necessity of protecting the executive branch from vexatious litigation that might distract it from the energetic performance of its constitutional duties."

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court was asked last week to intervene in a long- fermenting wine war that pits the champions of small vineyards against state regulators and their licensed wholesalers. The question is whether wine lovers should be able to make purchases through the mail from out-of-state vineyards. The answer requires the court to resolve a clash between two constitutional principles. The first guarantees a free flow of goods across state lines. The other came in 1933 with the compromise that ended the nation's failed experiment in Prohibition.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court turned away a final challenge yesterday to the Bush administration's policy of keeping secret the names of hundreds of Middle Eastern men who were picked up for questioning after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Without comment, the justices refused to hear a dispute largely overtaken by events. At least 750 men were arrested in a government roundup after the attacks, but nearly all of them had been deported or released by June 2002. Only one, Zacarias Moussaoui, was charged in connection with the al-Qaida attacks, although his case has stalled over a dispute about potential witnesses.

In a substantial setback for industry efforts to stop music piracy, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that the Recording Industry Association of America cannot force Internet service providers to reveal the names and mailing addresses of alleged music swappers on their networks. By overturning a lower court's decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit eliminated a powerful tool used by the RIAA under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 to learn the identities of computer users and sue them for downloading music.

WASHINGTON - In its decision to accept the Guantanamo Bay prisoners' appeals despite the Bush administration's objections, the Supreme Court brushed past the "judges keep out" fence the administration had tried to erect around its open-ended detention policy. No matter how the court rules, that action alone might come to define a singular moment in the relationship between the White House and the Supreme Court, two inherently powerful institutions that for the past several years have been in alpha mode, intent on exercising their power to the maximum extent.