SUPREME COURT NOTEBOOK

Justices won't hear challenge to Clean Air Act rule WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court won't hear a challenge to a tough new clean air requirement limiting sulfur dioxide emissions. The high court on Tuesday refused to hear an appeal from businesses and industrial interests involving an Environmental Protection Agency regulation setting emission levels of sulfur dioxide, a colorless gas with the smell of rotting eggs. Sulfur dioxide from power plant smokestacks can be carried long distances by wind and weather and has been linked to various illnesses including asthma. Several corporations and industrial associations along with several states say that EPA's required emission levels are lower than mandated by law to protect public health. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused to overturn the EPA's decision. The justices refused to reconsider that ruling. Court rejects appeal from Somali pirates WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from Somali men who were the first people convicted on federal piracy charges in nearly 200 years. The justices did not comment Tuesday in refusing to go into the convictions and sentences of life in prison. Defense lawyers had argued the men were innocent fishermen who had been abducted by pirates and forced to fire their weapons at a U.S. Navy ship. But the government said that the Somalis had confessed to attacking the USS Nicholas after mistaking it for a merchant ship. The Nicholas was part of an international flotilla fighting piracy in the seas off Somalia. The court also rejected a separate appeal from another group of Somalis who have yet to be tried on piracy charges. Published: Thu, Jan 24, 2013