Washington ? The U.S. Supreme Court heard 79 cases in the term ended last week. The members are Chief Justice William Rehnquist and, in order of seniority, Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Several key cases are listed below; the full opinions can be found at www.supremecourtus.gov.

Election Law

• Campaign money. Congress may bar federal candidates and political parties from collecting the huge donations that were known as “soft money,” and it may forbid pre-election broadcast campaign ads that are funded by corporations, unions or the wealthy. The 5-4 decision rejected a free-speech challenge to the McCain-Feingold Act (McConnell v. FCC).
• Gerrymandering. Partisan lawmakers may draw election districts so as to favor their party’s candidates. The 5-4 decision rejected an equal-protection challenge to “partisan gerrymandering” and upheld a Republican plan in Pennsylvania that gave the GOP a 12-7 edge in its congressional delegation even though that state has leaned Democratic recently (Vieth v. Jubelirer).

Presidential power and war on terrorism

• Foreign detainees. Foreign nationals who were captured abroad and taken to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have a right to challenge the “legality of (their) potentially indefinite detention” in the U.S. courts. The 6-3 ruling rejects the Bush administration’s view that the president alone, not judges, controlled the fate of alleged foreign fighters (Rasul v. Bush).
• Terror suspects. The court refused to decide whether an American who was arrested in the United States and held as an “enemy combatant” has a right to a court trial because lawyers for suspected terrorist Jose Padilla filed his appeal in the wrong place. The 5-4 ruling said his lawyer should have gone to South Carolina, where he is now held, rather than New York, where he was initially held (Rumsfeld v. Padilla).
• Cheney task force. The court set aside a judge’s order that would have required the White House to turn over documents that say who met with Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy policy task force. The 7-2 ruling says “presidential confidentiality (is due) the greatest protection” from forced disclosures (Cheney v. U.S. District Court).
• Foreign abductions. A foreigner who is abducted abroad and brought to the United States for trial may not sue the people who captured him or the U.S. agents who ordered the abduction. However, foreign victims of human rights abuses, such as torture or forced labor, may sue the perpetrators in U.S. courts (Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain).

Business, employment and discrimination

• HMOs. Patients who are harmed when their managed care plan refuses to pay for a needed treatment may not sue the plan for damages. In a 9-0 ruling, the court said these state claims were barred by the federal law that regulates employee benefits (Aetna v. Davila).
• People with disabilities. A wheelchair-bound man who was unable to get to a second-floor courtroom may sue the state for failing to make its facility accessible (Tennessee v. Lane).
• Older workers. An employer may adopt rules that favor older workers and disfavor those in middle age without violating the law against age discrimination. The 6-3 decision rejected a “reverse bias” claim brought by middle-age employees (General Dynamics v. Cline).
• Sexual harassment. Victims of “intolerable” harassment in the workplace may quit and sue their employers for damages, even if they failed to complain about the mistreatment. The 8-1 decision also allows employers to defend themselves by showing complaints were acted upon (Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders).

Criminal law

• Roadblocks. Police may set up a roadblock to ask motorists if they have information about a recent accident at the same site. The 6-3 ruling held these stops are not an “unreasonable search (Illinois v Lidster).”
• Identification. Police who have reasonable suspicion to stop a pedestrian may require that he give his name. The 5-4 ruling rejects the idea that citizens have a right to remain silent (Hiibel v. Nevada).
• Miranda warnings. Confessions may not be used in court if detectives decided to question a suspect first and warn him of his right to remain silent after he confesses (Missouri v. Siebert).
• Vehicle inspections. Agents near the U.S. border may stop vehicles and disassemble them to look for drugs even when they have no reason to suspect a particular motorist. The 9-0 ruling reversed the 9th U.S. Circuit Court in California (U.S. v. Flores-Montano).

Religion, speech and the First Amendment

• Scholarships. A state may deny scholarship aid to a college student training to be a pastor without violating the First Amendment. The 7-2 ruling rejected a claim of religious discrimination (Locke v. Davey).
• Pledge. The words “one Nation, under God” may remain in the Pledge of Allegiance because a California atheist who did not have custody of his daughter did not have a legal right to challenge what was said in her school. The 5-3 decision reversed the 9th Circuit Court but did not finally decide the issue (Elk Grove Schools v. Newdow).
• Internet pornography. Prosecutors may not enforce a federal law that would make it a crime for commercial Web sites to display sexually explicit material that children could see. The 5-4 ruling says this law appears to violate free-speech guarantees and there are better ways to shield children from unwanted material (Ashcroft v. ACLU).