High court won't take Nazi art dispute case
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is leaving in place a ruling for a California museum in a dispute over ownership of two German Renaissance masterpieces seized by the Nazis in World War II.
The high court on Monday declined to get involved in the case, leaving in place lower court rulings.
A federal appeals court ruled in 2018 for Pasadena's Norton Simon Museum of Art, blocking a lawsuit over ownership of "Adam" and "Eve." The paintings are by Lucas Cranach the Elder.
Marei von Saher sued over the works. They were taken by Nazis in a forced sale from her father-in-law, a Jewish art dealer in the Netherlands. After the war, the Dutch government sold the paintings. The museum acquired them in 1971.
A Dutch court previously ruled against von Saher.
Supreme Court sends dispute over Fosamax back to lower court
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is sending a dispute between drugmaker Merck and patients who used its bone-strengthening drug Fosamax back to a lower court.
The high court ruled Monday that a lawsuit involving hundreds of people who sued alleging they were injured by Fosamax should go back to a lower court for further proceedings.
The Fosamax users had argued that Merck had failed to provide adequate warnings on the drug's label. A trial court initially threw claims against the New Jersey-based company but an appeals court revived them.
Merck had argued that it couldn't have added a warning risk of an unusual type of thigh-bone fracture earlier than 2010 because the FDA determined the available evidence didn't support a change before then.
High court sides with Crow tribe member in hunting dispute
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is siding with a member of the Crow tribe who was fined for hunting elk in Wyoming's Bighorn National Forest.
The Supreme Court on Monday sided with Clayvin Herrera. He argued that when his tribe gave up land in present-day Montana and Wyoming to the federal government in 1868, the tribe retained the right to hunt on the land.
The justices rejected Wyoming's argument that the Crow tribe's hunting rights ceased to exist after Wyoming became a state in 1890 or after Bighorn National Forest was established in 1897.
Herrera wound up with a fine of more than $8,000 after he posted photos online of his kill.
Supreme Court declines appeal on death row inmate
CINCINNATI (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Ohio's appeal of a ruling throwing out a man's conviction and death sentence in the 1997 of a Cincinnati convenience store owner.
The high court Monday let stand a 2018 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that agreed with attorneys for Ahmad Fawzi Issa that statements about his involvement in a murder-for-hire case were hearsay and violated his right to confront witnesses against him. He was convicted of arranging the shooting of Maher Khrais outside his store in 1997.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters will have to decide whether to retry Issa, age 49. Otherwise, he could be released from the state prison where he's been held since 1998.
Published: Tue, May 21, 2019
