High court rejects hot issues
Among the cases the Supreme Court turned down on Monday:
“A lawsuit by parents objecting to a three-week class for seventh-graders on Islam. Jonas and Tiffany Eklund objected to pupils at a public school in California being given pages from the opening chapter of the Quran to read and being assigned to study Islam’s Five Pillars of Faith in a world history unit on Muslim culture.
“A case brought by privacy advocates who say the Bush administration’s rules for disclosing medical records are too lax. Ten groups representing 750,000 consumers, medical practitioners and their patients challenged a federal rule that encourages development of an information system for electronic transfer of health data.
“The case of John Hansl, a member of the SS Death’s Head battalion that guarded concentration camps at Sachsenhausen near Berlin in 1943 and Natzweiler in France in 1944. The government revoked the U.S. citizenship of Hansl, who sought to distinguish his case from other former Nazi concentration camp guards by arguing he did not hide his wartime past or personally assist in persecution.
“An appeal by Detroit newspapers of a National Labor Relations Board ruling ordering the partnership that sells, prints and distributes advertising for The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press to reinstate fired employees.
“A free-speech case involving Gloria Allred, a prominent California lawyer. Allred was the subject of a judge’s gag order in the murder trial of Scott Dyleski, the teenager convicted of killing Pamela Vitale. The victim was the wife of television legal analyst Daniel Horowitz.
“An appeal by a conservative group blocked from airing ads about same-sex marriage. The group wanted to challenge a provision in federal election law that bars corporations and labor unions from paying for any radio or TV broadcast referring to a candidate for federal office within 30 days of a federal primary election or within 60 days of a general election.
“An appeal by an adult bookstore employee in El Paso, Texas, who sought to overturn a state law making it a crime to sell sex toys shaped like sexual organs.
“A case by ex-Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent in which he claims he is owed royalties for his contributions to the heavy metal band’s 1983 album “Lick It Up.” Vincent, whose real name is Vincent Cusano, played with Kiss from 1982 to 1984, co-writing “I Love It Loud,” “Lick It Up” and other songs.
“A case that could sharply limit the money paid to workers harmed by asbestos exposure. The case involves a dispute between the Fuller-Austin Insulation Co. and its insurers over how much insurance companies must pay asbestos victims.