SUPREME COURT NOTEBOOK

Justices reject appeal over insanity defense WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court is refusing to consider whether a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. The justices on Monday rejected an appeal from convicted killer John Joseph Delling of Idaho, one of four states that bar defendants from claiming that they were legally insane or unable to appreciate that what they did was wrong. The other states are Kansas, Montana and Utah. Delling was convicted of killing two college students in 2007. Delling suffers from acute paranoid schizophrenia and says he was in the grip of severe delusions when he killed the two men and wounded a third. Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have heard the case. Court won't get into fight over grape patents WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from a California table grape organization over a lawsuit seeking to invalidate several government table grape patents. The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from the California Table Grape Commission, which is fighting to keep in place patents on Sweet Scarlet, Autumn King and Scarlet Royal varieties of table grapes. Delano Farms Co. and other farms say the patents are invalid, and won a lower court decision that would allow them to go to court to fight their case. The commission wants that case thrown out, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit disagreed. The case now goes back to the lower courts. Plea to block taping of police turned down WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an Illinois prosecutor's plea to allow enforcement of a law aimed at stopping people from recording police officers on the job. The justices on Monday left in place a lower court ruling that found that the state's anti-eavesdropping law violates free speech rights when used against people who tape law enforcement officers. The law sets out a maximum prison term of 15 years. Opponents of the law say the right to record police is vital to guard against abuses. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in 2010 against Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to block prosecution of ACLU staff for recording police officers performing their duties in public places. It's one of the group's long-standing monitoring missions. New look at health care challenge ordered By Mark Sherman Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has revived a Christian college's challenge to President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, with the acquiescence of the Obama administration. The court on Monday ordered the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., to consider the claim by Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., that Obama's health care law violates the school's religious freedoms. The court's action at this point means only that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals must now pass judgment on issues it previously declined to rule on. A federal district judge rejected Liberty's claims, and a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit voted 2-1 that the lawsuit was premature and never dealt with the substance of the school's arguments. The Supreme Court upheld the health care law in June. The justices used lawsuits filed by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business to uphold the health care law by a 5-4 vote, then rejected all other pending appeals, including Liberty's. The school made a new filing with the court over the summer to argue that its claims should be fully evaluated in light of the high court decision. The administration said it did not oppose Liberty's request. Liberty is challenging both the requirement that most individuals obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, and a separate provision requiring many employers to offer health insurance to their workers. Liberty law school dean Mathew Staver said, "This case now will go back to the federal court of appeals where we will address the undecided issues that the Supreme Court did not address." When Liberty's case was in front of the 4th Circuit, Judge Andre Davis broke with his colleagues who thought the challenge was premature. Davis said of Liberty's claims, "I would further hold that each of appellants' challenges to the act lacks merit." The appeals court could ask the government and the college for new legal briefs to assess the effect of the Supreme Court ruling on Liberty's claims before rendering a decision. Liberty's case joins dozens of other pending lawsuits over health reform, many involving the requirement that employer insurance plans cover contraception. These cases are working their way through the federal court system. The case is Liberty University v. Geithner, 11-438. ---------------- Associated Press writer Brock Vergakis in Norfolk, Va., contributed to this report. Published: Wed, Nov 28, 2012