Supreme Court Notebook

High court rules for power company over Mont. dams WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has sided with a power company in a dispute with Montana over who owns the riverbeds beneath 10 dams sitting on three Montana rivers. In a case that reached back to the travels of Lewis and Clark more than 200 years ago, the court voted unanimously Wednesday to throw out a state court ruling that could have cost the company more than $50 million. The justices said the Montana Supreme Court was wrong to conclude that the state owns the riverbeds and ordered the state court to take another look at the case. Court says police cannot be sued over warrant WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court says California police officers cannot be sued because they used a warrant that may have been defective to search a woman's house. The high court on Wednesday threw out the lawsuit against Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detective Curt Messerschmidt and other police officials. They were sued after searching Augusta Millender's house looking for her foster son, who shot at his ex-girlfriend with a sawed-off shotgun. The warrant said the police could look for any weapons on the property and gang-related material. The weapon and the shooter were not found but police confiscated Millender's shotgun. Millender said the warrant was constitutionally overbroad, and the lower courts let her sue the police officers personally despite their claims of immunity. The court on a 6-3 vote overturned that decision. Published: Thu, Feb 23, 2012