Supreme Court Notebook

High court to hear Kansas plea to reinstate death sentences WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear Kansas' appeal to reinstate death sentences for two brothers in the fatal shootings of four people and for another man convicted of killing a couple. The justices said they will review rulings by the Kansas Supreme Court that threw out the sentences of Jonathan and Reginald Carr and Sidney Gleason. The Kansas court hasn't upheld a death sentence since the state enacted a new capital punishment law in 1994. The state's last executions, by hanging, took place in 1965. The Carr brothers were sentenced to death for the four killings, which occurred in Wichita in December 2000 and followed dozens of other crimes, including robbery and rape. Gleason was sentenced to die over the couple's deaths, in the central Kansas town of Great Bend in February 2004. The justices said they will consider instructions given to jurors in the sentencing phase of capital trials about evidence favorable to the defendants. The court also will weigh whether sentencing the Carr brothers together violated their rights. The cases will be argued in the fall. High court sends back ruling on Virginia redistricting WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court says a lower court must take another look at a ruling that said Virginia state lawmakers packed too many black voters into one congressional district. The justices on Monday said the lower court should reconsider the case in light of the high court's ruling last week in an Alabama redistricting case. In the Alabama case, the justices said the lower court failed to consider claims that the new districts limited minority voting power. Eight current and former Republican Virginia congressmen had urged the high court to reverse the lower court's ruling faulting the Virginia plan. The 2-1 ruling last year ordered the General Assembly to draw new boundaries. At issue is the state's 3rd Congressional District, which has had a black majority since 1991. High court rejects church appeal over use of public school WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has again rejected an appeal from a small evangelical church in the Bronx seeking to overturn New York City's ban on after-hours religious worship services at public schools. The justices did not comment Monday in siding with the city's Department of Education in a long-running fight over the separation of church and state in the nation's largest public school system. The Bronx Household of Faith held Sunday services at P.S. 15 for 12 years, until last summer when the church completed its own building near the school. But the church said it still needs extra space for events that include religious services. The Supreme Court has twice before rejected the church's appeal in a lawsuit spanning 18 years. The city said it risked blurring church-state separation if it allowed worship services in public schools, although New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has been more supportive of allowing faith organizations to use the city's schools than was his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg. About 60 groups had been allowed to worship in public buildings. The case is Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education, 14-354. Justices reject appeal by US flag-wearing students WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has denied an appeal from former California high school students who were ordered to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out during a celebration of the Cinco de Mayo holiday at school. The justices did not comment Monday in leaving in place an appellate ruling that found that school officials acted appropriately because their concerns about racial violence outweighed students' freedom of expression rights. Administrators feared the American-flag shirts would enflame the passions of Latino students celebrating the Mexican holiday. The onetime students at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California, argued that school officials gave a "heckler's veto" to the objecting students. The brother and sister who won a landmark Vietnam era student speech case at the Supreme Court also supported the appeal. Published: Tue, Mar 31, 2015