High court rejects appeal in case of police official
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t consider reinstating the conviction of a former Ohio police official charged in connection with his wife’s 1995 death.
The justices on Monday declined to disturb a federal appeals court ruling that said authorities improperly withheld evidence that could have helped Ohio Police Lt. Thomas “Jim” Barton discredit charges linking him to a botched burglary. The appeals court ordered a new trial.
Prosecutors alleged Barton paid to stage a burglary to scare his wife into moving from their farm into the city of Springboro, where he wanted to become police chief. Authorities said she was killed when the burglary went awry.
A jury convicted Barton in 2005 of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated burglary.
Prosecutors must now re-try Barton or release him.
Justices will hear Samsung-Apple patent dispute
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to referee a pricey patent dispute between Samsung and Apple.
The justices said Monday they will review a $399 million judgment against South Korea-based Samsung for illegally copying patented aspects of the look of Apple’s iPhone.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, and Samsung are the top two manufacturers of increasingly ubiquitous smartphones.
The two companies have been embroiled in patent fights for years.
The justices will decide whether a court can order Samsung to pay Apple every penny it made from the phones at issue, even though the disputed features are a tiny part of the product.
The federal appeals court in Washington that hears patent cases ruled for Apple.
None of the earlier-generation Galaxy and other Samsung phones involved in the lawsuit remains on the market, Samsung said.
The case involved common smartphone features for which Apple holds patents: the flat screen, the rectangular shape with rounded corners, a rim and a screen of icons.
The case, Samsung v. Apple, 15-777, will be argued in the court’s new term that begins in October.
Court refuses appeal from condemned killer of 2
HOUSTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review an appeal from an East Texas man on death row for killing two men days apart during a crime trek across the state more than 14 years ago.
The high court made no comment Monday in its decision on the appeal from 32-year-old Clinton Lee Young.
The ruling upholds a federal appeals court’s rejection last summer of arguments that Young had deficient legal help at his 2002 trial in Midland and that prosecutors improperly withheld evidence.
Young, from Ore City in Upshur County, was convicted and condemned for the November 2001 fatal shootings of Doyle Douglas in Longview and then Samuel Petrey a day or two later in a
Midland oilfield after carjacking him in Eastland, about 53 miles east of Abilene.
Court rejects appeal over ban on guns at post offices
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t hear a dispute over a U.S. Postal Service regulation that bans guns from post office property and adjacent parking lots.
The justices on Monday let stand an appeals court ruling that said the Second Amendment right to bear arms does not extend to government buildings or the parking areas that serve them.
The case involved Colorado resident Tab Bonidy, who has a permit to carry a concealed handgun. He sought a court order striking down the regulation after learning he would be prosecuted for carrying his gun while picking up mail at his local post office or leaving it in his car.
The Obama administration argued that the Second Amendment does not restrict laws forbidding guns in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.
Justices order new look at stun gun law in Mass.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is ordering Massachusetts’ top court to look again at the state’s ban on stun guns.
The justices on Monday revived an appeal from a woman who said she kept a stun gun in her purse for self-defense against an abusive former boyfriend.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said the ban on possession of stun guns does not violate the Second Amendment.
Monday’s unsigned opinion does not go so far as to strike down the law or say stun guns are a type of firearm that is protected under the amendment’s “right to keep and bear arms.” But the opinion said the Massachusetts court’s reasoning for upholding the law was faulty.
Jaime Caetano was convicted after police investigating a shoplifting report found the stun gun in the woman’s purse. Caetano argued that it was for self-defense and that she had a constitutional right to carry it.
Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote separately to criticize the state court ruling in blunt terms. Alito called Monday’s ruling “grudging” and noted that the state court would now have another chance to rule against Caetano.
High court won’t hear dispute over state license plate
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t take up a dispute over whether an image on Oklahoma’s license plates showing an Apache warrior shooting an arrow contains a religious message.
The justices on Monday let stand an appeals court ruling that threw out a pastor’s lawsuit claiming the plates endorse a polytheistic religion.
The image comes from a famous bronze sculpture that depicts an Indian shooting an arrow skyward in hopes that the “spirit world” or “rain god” will answer prayers for rain.
Keith Cressman argued that the “Sacred Rain Arrow” image conveyed a religious message that was an affront to his Christian beliefs.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver last year upheld an Oklahoma federal judge who had dismissed the lawsuit.
Court rejects states’ challenge to pot law
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected an effort by Nebraska and Oklahoma to have Colorado’s pot legalization declared unconstitutional.
The justices are not commenting Monday in dismissing the lawsuit the states filed directly at the Supreme Court against their neighbor.
They argued that Colorado’s law allowing recreational marijuana use by adults runs afoul of federal anti-drug laws. The states also said that legalized pot in Colorado is spilling across the borders into Nebraska and Oklahoma, complicating their anti-drug efforts and draining state resources.
The Obama administration had sided with Colorado, despite the administration’s opposition to making marijuana use legal.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have heard the states’ lawsuit.
