Justices reject appeal over graduations in church
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has left in place a court decision that said public high school graduations in a church adorned with religious symbols violated the separation of church and state.
The justices’ action Monday comes more than a month after the court upheld Christian prayer at the start of town council meetings.
The justices did not explain their denial of the appeal from the Elmbrook School District in southeastern Wisconsin, however. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said they would have heard the case.
In 2012, the federal appeals court in Chicago found that a giant cross on the wall of Elmbrook Church and other religious symbols that were visible during graduation ceremonies conveyed a message that government was endorsing a particular religion. The district no longer holds graduations there.
High court rejects Scottie Pippen defamation case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has declined to revive a defamation lawsuit that former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen filed against several media companies for falsely reporting he had filed for bankruptcy.
The justices on Monday did not comment in letting stand lower court decisions dismissing the $10 million lawsuit against NBCUniversal Media LLC, CBS Interactive, Inc. and other media outlets.
Lower courts found that as a public figure, Pippen could not show the reports were published with actual malice. That standard requires Pippen to show the information was published knowing it was false or issued with reckless disregard for the truth.
Pippen claimed the media companies acted with malice because they refused to correct or remove the erroneous reports from several websites after being alerted to the error.
U.S. high court rejects Argentina’s appeal over debt
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away Argentina’s appeal of lower court rulings ordering it to pay more than $1.3 billion to hedge funds that hold some of the country’s defaulted bonds.
The justices did not comment in leaving in place court rulings that Argentina says could threaten its economy if it has to pay off the old debt.
The dispute stems from debt left unpaid when the Argentine economy crashed in 2001. Hedge funds led by billionaire Paul Singer’s NML Capital Ltd. bought some of the unpaid debt and refused to accept bonds of lesser value in exchange for regular debt payments. Holders of 92 percent of the defaulted bonds agreed to the deal.
Argentina asked the Supreme Court to intervene because it said that making the country pay cash in full to investors who didn’t accept bond swaps in exchange for defaulted debt could destabilize the global economy by making other voluntary debt restructurings much harder.
Lawyers for Argentina said that full payment would cut the country’s reserves roughly in half. They also said that lower courts which ruled against Argentina were ignoring federal law that generally protects other nations in American courts and could make U.S. assets more vulnerable to lawsuits filed abroad.
Singer won a judgment of $1.3 billion plus interest in the debt dispute, but has never been able to collect despite sending lawyers around the world to try to seize Argentine assets.
The courts in New York accepted his argument that Argentina has been a deadbeat nation and a serial violator of U.S. court rulings.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor took no part in the case.
U.S. high court rejects insider trader’s appeal
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a onetime billionaire hedge fund founder who was convicted on insider trading charges.
The justices did not comment Monday in letting stand the 2011 conviction of Raj Rajaratnam, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for committing securities fraud.
Rajaratnam wanted the high court to review what role insider information played in the securities trades for which he was convicted. He also asked the justices to look at whether the government properly obtained a wiretap on his cellphone that was used to capture 2,200 private conversations.
The federal appeals court in New York previously upheld the conviction of Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon group of hedge funds.
His brother, Rengam Rajaratnam, is facing federal fraud charges.
Court will consider extra pay for mortgage brokers
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from former mortgage brokers for Quicken Loans who claim the online mortgage giant owes them overtime pay for their work in the last decade.
The justices said Monday they will review a lower court ruling in favor of Quicken. The case will be argued in the fall.
The case turns on rules put in place by the Department of Labor that would make the mortgage brokers eligible for overtime pay under federal labor law. The rules were changed twice in a four-year period that spanned the Bush and Obama administrations.
In 2006, the Labor Department said the mortgage brokers were like executives and thus not covered by the overtime provision. In 2010, the department reversed itself.
