SUPREME COURT NOTEBOOK

Justice Ginsburg on bench for arguments WASHINGTON (AP) - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to Supreme Court bench Monday, questioning lawyers in her usual exacting fashion five days after she had a stent implanted to clear a blocked artery. The 81-year-old Ginsburg actively participated in the give-and-take of the oral arguments. She was hospitalized Tuesday after experiencing discomfort during an exercise session with her personal trainer at the court. Doctors implanted the stent on Wednesday and she was sent home a day later. Ginsburg is the oldest justice. She has been on the court since 1993 and has not missed a day, despite two earlier bouts with cancer in 1999 and 2009, and the death of her husband in 2010. Court rejects Michigan blood transfusion case WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from the estate of a Michigan woman who died following a kidney transplant after turning down a blood transfusion because of her religious beliefs. The justices on Monday let stand a state appeals court ruling that said the estate of Gwendolyn Rozier could not sue her doctors for negligence. Rozier received a kidney from her daughter in a 2007 surgery but doctors later found that her body was rejecting the organ. She refused a blood transfusion, in keeping with the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses. Rozier's estate accused the doctors of failing to timely recognize internal bleeding, among other allegations, which would have eliminated the need for a transfusion. The Michigan appeals court said the transfusion was a necessary medical procedure under the circumstances. Appeal in Iowa pollution case turned down WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from an Iowa grain company over a class-action lawsuit brought by nearby residents. The justices on Monday let stand an Iowa Supreme Court ruling that said residents could bring a nuisance lawsuit against Grain Processing Corp., which operates a corn processing plant in Muscatine. The lawsuit accuses the company of routinely blanketing homes with soot and harmful chemicals. A lower court threw out the case, but the state supreme court said claims of nuisance, negligence and trespass are not barred by the federal Clean Air Act or related state rules governing air emissions. Environmental groups backed the lawsuit, but business groups said regulation of air pollution should be left to state and federal agencies and not judges on a case-by-case basis. Published: Wed, Dec 03, 2014