SUPREME COURT NOTEBOOK

Court says sex offenders can challenge arrest WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court says rules requiring sex offenders to update their registration when crossing state lines don't automatically apply to those who committed their crimes before the law was passed. The high court ruled 7-2 that Billy Joe Reynolds can challenge his arrest for violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Reynolds was sentenced to 18 month in prison for moving from Missouri to Pennsylvania and not registering as a sex offender in his new state. He sued, saying this crime was before the registration act's rules were put into place. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out his lawsuit. The high court overturned that decision. But Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, saying the law applied to pre-Act offenders. California's slaughterhouse law overturned By Jesse J. Holland Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a California law that would require euthanizing downed livestock at federally inspected slaughterhouses to keep the meat out of the nation's food system. The high court ruled that the state's 2009 state law was blocked from going into effect by federal law administered by the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Federal law "precludes California's effort ... to impose new rules, beyond any the FSIS has chosen to adopt, on what a slaughterhouse must do with a pig that becomes non-ambulatory during the production process," said Justice Elena Kagan, who wrote the court's unanimous opinion. California strengthened regulations against slaughtering so-called "downer" animals after the 2008 release of an undercover Humane Society of the United States video showing workers abusing cows at a Southern California slaughterhouse. Under California law, the ban on buying, selling and slaughtering of downer cattle also extends to pigs, sheep and goats. But pork producers sued to stop the law, saying the new law interfered with federal laws that require inspections of downed livestock before determining whether they can be used for meat. The Federal Meat Inspection Act allows a federal meat inspector to examine and then determine whether a downed animal is fit to be slaughtered for meat. It also says states cannot add requirements "in addition to or different than" its requirements. About 3 percent of pigs that show up at slaughterhouses are non-ambulatory, the National Meat Association says, but veterinarians normally give the non-walking pigs a few hours to determine whether their problem is disease, or just stress, fatigue, stubbornness or being overheated from the trip to the slaughterhouse. A federal judge agreed and blocked the law, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the hold. The justices overturned that decision. Federal law "regulates slaughterhouses' handling and treatment of non-ambulatory pigs from the moment of their delivery through the end of the meat production process," Kagan said. California's law "endeavors to do the same thing, at the same time, in the same place - except by imposing different requirements. The FMIA expressly pre-empts such a state law." Justices won't hear arguments demanding Kagan's recusal WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court won't hear arguments from a conservative watchdog group that wants Justice Elena Kagan disqualified from deciding the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's national health care overhaul. Freedom Watch asked the high court for time to demand Kagan's recusal or disqualification during arguments on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The law is aimed at extending health insurance coverage to more than 30 million previously uninsured people and would, by 2019, leave just 5 percent of the population uninsured, compared with about 17 percent today, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Justices, who will be hearing more than five hours of arguments on the health care overhaul, rejected the request without comment. Kagan, who was solicitor general under Obama, did not participate in the decision. Published: Wed, Jan 25, 2012