Supreme Court Notebook

Oklahoma Soldier asks U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Attorneys for an Oklahoma soldier convicted of killing an unarmed Iraqi prison detainee are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider their appeal.
Attorneys representing 1st Lt. Michael Behenna argue the court should hear the case because Behenna was deprived of self-defense rights afforded to police officers.
Behenna is serving a 15-year sentence in a military prison for unpremeditated murder in a combat zone. A military appeals court upheld his conviction last year.
The Oklahoman reports that Behenna’s attorneys argue the military court’s position puts service members “in physical and legal jeopardy.”
The Army has not yet responded to the appeal. Previously, the Army has argued that Behenna could not claim self-defense because he was pointing his weapon at the detainee when the man allegedly reached for Behenna’s handgun.


U.S. court won’t stop embryonic stem cell research

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will not stop the U.S. government’s funding of embryonic stem cell research, despite some researchers’ complaints that the work relies on destroyed human embryos.
The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from two scientists who have been challenging the funding for the work.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Washington area earlier this year threw out their lawsuit challenging federal funding for the research, which is used in pursuit of cures to deadly diseases. Opponents claimed the National Institutes of Health was violating the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law that prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms an embryo.
Researchers hope one day to use stem cells in ways that cure spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease and other ailments.


High court rejects challenge to  required Medicare

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has turned away a challenge from former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and other Social Security recipients who say they have the right to reject Medicare in favor of continuing health coverage from private insurers.
The justices did not comment Monday in letting stand a federal appeals court ruling that held that there is no way for people who receive Social Security to reject Medicare benefits.
Armey, a Texas Republican, and two other former federal employees say private insurance covers more than Medicare. Two other plaintiffs are wealthy individuals who have high deductible private insurance and prefer to pay for their health care.
The case was funded by a group called The Fund For Personal Liberty, which says its purpose is to take on burdensome government regulations.


U.S. court won’t hear new appeal in murder case

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear an appeal in the murder case of a Mexican woman who was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the death of a Texas boy.
The court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Rosa Estela Olvera Jimenez.
She was sentenced in 2005 for the death of a nearly 2-year-old boy she had been babysitting in Austin, Texas. The boy died three months after choking on five paper towels lodged in his throat. Jimenez said the boy ate the paper towels, but prosecutors argued that she stuffed the towels into the boy’s mouth.
Mexico’s new president, Enrique Pena Nieto, filed a brief in his personal capacity asking justices to reevaluate her case. But the court, without comment, refused to hear her appeal.


Court won’t hear Ga. gun lawsuit about churches
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t overturn a Georgia law banning firearms in churches and places of worship.
The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from GeorgiaCarry.org, which wanted the justices to overturn a lower court that upheld Georgia’s law banning guns in churches.
GeorgiaCarry.org argued that the ban applying specifically to places of worship burdens “religiously motivated conduct by regulating how or what a worshipper can do with a weapon while he is worshipping.”
But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit brought by GeorgiaCarry and the Rev. Jonathan Wilkins of the Baptist Tabernacle of Thomaston, Ga. The Supreme Court, without comment, refused to reconsider that ruling.t