High court won’t hear appeal from 9/11 families
WASHINGTON (AP) — The relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks have lost their bid to get the Supreme Court to rule that New York City must provide a proper burial for material taken from the World Trade Center site because it could contain the ashes of victims.
The justices on Monday said they would not hear an appeal from the families of some of those killed when the 110-story twin towers collapsed nine years ago.
Lower federal courts had dismissed the families’ lawsuit against the city, saying it acted responsibly in moving 1.6 million tons of materials from the site in Lower Manhattan to a landfill on Staten Island and then sifting through the material for human remains.
No remains have been found of roughly 1,100 people killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Court won’t hear appeal from Adelphia founders
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from a father and son who built Adelphia Communications into a cable television powerhouse and were convicted of fraud after it collapsed into bankruptcy.
The high court refused on Monday to hear an appeal from John and Timothy Rigas.
The Rigases were sent to prison after Adelphia collapsed in 2002. At the time, it was the country’s fifth-largest cable TV company.
Prosecutors said John Rigas used it like a personal piggy bank, paying for expenses as small as massages and withdrawing $100,000 from the company whenever he wished.
The Rigases say the government should have turned over to them notes taken during prosecutorial interviews with some witnesses. They also say their prison sentences were too long.
Appeal from reputed Klansman rejected by court
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from reputed Ku Klux Klansman James Ford Seale for the killing of two black men in rural Mississippi in 1964.
The high court on Monday turned away Seale’s appeal without comment.
In March, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the evidence against Seale was sufficient for the jury conviction in the trial that took place 43 years after the crimes. Seale was convicted in 2007 of two counts of kidnapping and one of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He was given three life sentences.
Authorities say Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, both 19, were beaten by Klansmen and thrown, possibly still alive, into a muddy backwater of the Mississippi River.
Court turns down church appeal in genocide lawsuit
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal that sought to hold a Canadian energy company accountable in U.S. courts for allegedly aiding genocide in its pursuit of oil in Sudan.
The court did not comment Monday on its order turning down an appeal from the Presbyterian Church of Sudan, which filed a civil lawsuit against Talisman Energy Inc. on behalf of current and former residents of southern Sudan who suffered injuries during six years of a decades-long conflict in the region.
Lower federal courts threw out the lawsuit, saying there was no credible evidence to support the claims against the Calgary-based company.
Supreme Court rejects Miss. corruption case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has declined appeals of corruption convictions from a prominent Mississippi lawyer and two former state judges.
The justices on Monday let stand without comment a ruling by a federal appeals court that upheld most convictions of the lawyer, Paul Minor, and the judges, John Whitfield and Wes Teel. The men were convicted for their roles in a complicated scheme involving loans for the judges and allegedly favorable rulings in civil cases involving Minor.
The cases are Minor v. U.S., 09-1422, Teel v. U.S., 09-11039, and Whitfield v. U.S., 09-11067.
