Court Won't Reconsider Sudan Lawsuit Dismissal

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court won't reconsider the dismissal of a $50 million lawsuit against the United States over President Bill Clinton's 1998 missile strikes in Sudan.

The court on Tuesday refused to hear an appeal from the El-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries plant in North Khartoum, Sudan.

The strikes were in retaliation for the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. Clinton said the plant was connected to bin Laden's terrorist activities.

The plant owners sued, saying they were defamed to justify the strike. They also were never compensated for the plant's destruction.

The lower courts threw out the lawsuit, saying the strike was a political decision that cannot be reviewed by the courts.

The case is El-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries Co. v. United States, 10-328.

The U.S. Supreme Court also weighed in on several other cases today, determining it will decide if Calif. can reduce Medicaid payments, turning down a $16 million Ford plea and rejecting a Guantanamo detainee appeal. Among the cases:

Maxwell-Jolly v. Independent Living Center, 09-958
The Supreme Court will decide whether to allow California to reduce its Medicaid payments to help close its massive budget gap.

General Dynamics v. U.S., 09-1298, and Boeing v. U.S., 09-1302
Supreme Court justices seemed in general agreement Tuesday that the best way to resolve a long-running, billion-dollar dispute between the government and two big defense contractors is to say, in Justice Antonin Scalia's words, "Go away."

That was the apparent sentiment of the court toward a contract dispute over the A-12 Avenger attack plane, canceled by the Pentagon in 1991 when Richard Cheney was defense secretary, based on claims that the companies, the Boeing Co. and General Dynamics Corp., failed to meet the terms of the contract.

Court Turns Down Appeal of Child Porn Conviction
The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a man who was convicted of child pornography charges based on the nude pictures he kept from his mid-1970s affair with his teenage sister-in-law.

Gary Peel wanted the court to throw out the conviction because there was no federal child pornography law when he took the shots of his sister-in-law in 1974. She was 16 at the time. The justices on Tuesday turned down his appeal without comment.

Pella v. Saltzman, 10-355
The Supreme Court won't stop the class-action certification of a lawsuit against Pella Corp. over a purported defect in one of its windows.

The high court on Tuesday refused to hear an appeal from the window-maker.

Justices Remove Roadblocks in 2 Texas Executions
The Supreme Court has rejected appeals from two Texas death row inmates whose executions the court had previously blocked.

In denying appeals Tuesday from former Army recruiter Cleve Foster and Gayland Bradford, the justices cleared the way for the state to schedule new execution dates for the two men.

High Court Turns Down Ford Plea for $16 Million
The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Ford Motor Co.'s financing arm that sought a $16 million refund of taxes paid to the state of Michigan.

U.S. High Court Rejects Guantanamo Detainee Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to take a new case involving a Guantanamo Bay detainee who was ordered released by a federal judge before an appeals court said he could continue to be held.

The court turned down an appeal Tuesday from Mohammed al-Adahi, a Yemeni who has spent more than eight years in the jail of the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

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