Other matters before the Supreme Court

— In other actions on Monday, the Supreme Court:

Agreed to hear an appeal from business and civil-rights groups trying to overturn a 2007 Arizona law that prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal aliens. The prohibition is separate from a new Arizona immigration law that’s also being challenged in court and requires police to question the immigration status of people they suspect are in the country illegally.

Rejected the Justice Department’s bid for as much as $280 billion in tobacco company profits.The rebuff all but ensures that the racketeering suit first pressed by former President Bill Clinton’s administration won’t result in financial penalties against Altria’s Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The court also rejected a group of industry appeals aimed at overturning a trial judge’s finding that the cigarette makers defrauded the public about the dangers of smoking for more than 50 years.

Dismissed a business-led challenge to a universal healthcare program in San Francisco that has enrolled more than 53,000 people who lacked health insurance and requires employers help pay the bill or give their workers health coverage.

Declined to stop a lawsuit that accuses the Vatican of conspiring with U.S. church officials to transfer a priest from city to city despite repeated accusations that the clergyman sexually abused young people.

Refused to stop the securities fraud prosecution of an investment newsletter that published a report about a stock on the basis of a statement that was later denied by the company’s owner.

Turned down an appeal from a woman who wants to sue Halliburton for the brain injury her husband suffered when a truck in a fuel convoy crashed in Iraq.

Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press and Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 7 on 06/29/2010

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