SUPREME COURT NOTEBOOK

Court rejects appeal over secret IRA tapes WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has turned away an appeal that sought to keep interviews with former Irish Republican Army members from being turned over to police in Northern Ireland. Monday's order from the high court leaves in place a lower court ruling that ordered Boston College to give the Justice Department portions of recorded interviews with convicted IRA car bomber Dolours Price. Federal officials want to forward the recordings to police investigating the IRA's 1972 killing of a Belfast woman. Price, who died in January, and other former IRA members were interviewed between 2001 and 2006 as part of The Belfast Project -- a resource for journalists, scholars and historians studying the long conflict in Northern Ireland. In October, Justice Stephen Breyer temporarily blocked the interviews from being turned over. Challenge to NY gun law rejected WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court is staying out of the gun debate for now. The justices on Monday declined to hear a challenge to a strict New York law that makes it difficult for residents to get a license to carry a concealed handgun in public. The court did not comment in turning away an appeal from five state residents and the Second Amendment Foundation. Their lawsuit also drew support from the National Rifle Association and 20 states. The high court action comes amid an intensifying congressional debate on new gun control measures. The issue has resurfaced prominently in Washington in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting that killed 20 children and six adults. Published: Wed, Apr 17, 2013