SUPREME COURT NOTEBOOK

Court grants Texas a few more days in immigration case

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has granted Texas some of the extra time the state sought to respond to the Obama administration's immigration appeal. The court could rule by late June on the administration's plan to shield millions of immigrants from deportation.

The schedule the court outlined on Tuesday gives Texas only eight of the 30 additional days it wanted. That would allow arguments to be held in April and a decision to be issued two months later. If the justices rule for the administration, President Barack Obama would have roughly seven months in office to implement his plan.

The program would mainly affect people who are living in the country illegally, but whose children are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.


Justices end woman's lawsuit against Austrian railway company

WASHINGTON (AP) - A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against a woman who wanted to use American courts to sue the state-owned Austrian railway for grievous injuries she suffered while boarding a train in Innsbruck, Austria.

In their first decision of the term, the nine justices ruled Tuesday that Carol Sachs' lawsuit could not go forward in U.S. courts.

The railroad company OBB-Personenverkehr AG appealed to the Supreme Court after federal appellate judges in San Francisco said the suit could proceed because Sachs purchased her train ticket from a Massachusetts-based Internet site.

But Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that all of Sachs' claims "turn on the same tragic episode in Austria" in which her legs were crushed.

Published: Thu, Dec 03, 2015