High Court

The state Supreme Court has removed a Philadelphia judge from a death-penalty case for altering a transcript to remove a disparaging remark she made about the defendant. In a concurring statement with the high court's April 28 order, Justice Max Baer declared the admitted actions of Common Please Court Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes "reprehensible. " Hughes, 55, already is scheduled to retire and is set to become the chief executive officer of the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross on May 16. In a statement issued Friday evening, chapter chairman Michael Coslov said that the high court's decision "in no way will affect Judge Hughes' ability to be a strong, effective leader for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross, nor her ability to help those in need.

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to block the deportation of a Long Island man who has been sentenced to death in the Soviet Union for collaborating with the Nazis during World War II. In another case, a proposed settlement involving Lukens Steel in Chester County, Pa., may nullify the court's agreement to search for racial segregation. Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark had urged the court to review the case of Estonian-born Karl Linnas, one of the first targets of the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations.

The Supreme Court rejected Microsoft Corp.'s appeal of its antitrust case yesterday, clearing the way for the company and the government to try to settle the case. Microsoft sought a new trial, contending that U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's comments to reporters created an appearance of bias that infected the case. An appeals court removed Jackson and overturned part of his order - to split the No. 1 software-maker into two companies - but it upheld his finding that Microsoft had broken antitrust law and thus thwarted competition.

Although millions tuned in for last week's Florida Supreme Court hearing in the presidential election dispute, don't break out the popcorn for Friday's showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation's highest court said yesterday that it would not allow cameras in the courtroom for arguments in the case that could decide the presidency. The cable network C-SPAN had asked the high court to permit televising of George W. Bush's appeal of the Florida Supreme Court decision, which allowed hand recounts to continue until Sunday.

The disputed presidential election heads for a showdown today in the Florida Supreme Court, nearly three weeks after Election Day. Attorneys for Republican George W. Bush will ask the court to uphold the decision by Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris to ignore recounts in three counties and declare Bush the winner. Attorneys for Democrat Al Gore will ask the court to allow the recounts, which could cut into Bush's 930-vote lead, even though it is long past the legal deadline for counties to report results.

City commuters hoping that the state Supreme Court would come to their rescue can forget it. The high court yesterday passed on City Council's plea that it order court-supervised negotiations to end the 39-day-old SEPTA strike. In a one-page ruling, the Supreme Court sent the case to Commonwealth Court, where no hearing has yet been set. The lawsuit's architect, Council President John Street, said the decision was a setback, but said, "It could have been worse. We could have been thrown out, and we're not thrown out. We're in the Commonwealth Court.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has rejected South Harrison's last attempt in the state courts to block Gloucester County from running a landfill in the township, attorneys for the county and the township said yesterday. The high court refused the township permission to appeal a ruling by an appellate panel of judges that South Harrison's objections to construction and operation of the dump were without merit. The long, complicated case "is finally put to rest," said attorney Lewis Adler, an assistant to the county's environmental lawyer, Bruce Hasbrouck.

Nancy O'Mara Ezold - whose high-profile sexual discrimination case against a Philadelphia law firm was thrown out on appeal late last year - is back. She's appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court and has 55 women's, civil-rights and legal organizations supporting her. Ezold and some of those groups held a news conference here yesterday. "Each of them recognizes the very serious impact that the outcome of this case will have on their members," Ezold said. "My case is but the tip of the iceberg; it does not even begin to represent the number of women and other minorities in this country who are subject to discrimination every day. " Judith Lichtman, president of the Women's Legal Defense Fund, which signed on to the friend-of-the-court brief filed on Ezold's behalf, agreed.

Throughout the nation, myriad environmental regulations ban or limit construction on private property to protect coastlines, preserve wetlands, control flood damage, protect endangered species and conserve open spaces. Now, the Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the government must compensate private owners whose land was made worthless by such regulations. A decision in favor of the landowners could make it more difficult for thousands of municipal, county and state governments to enact and enforce laws to protect the environment.

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to allow California to carry out its first execution in 23 years, letting stand an order that blocked today's scheduled execution of murderer Robert A. Harris. The court, voting 6-3, left intact a lower court's order that blocked Harris' execution, pending a new hearing on the competency of his defense at trial. Harris, 37, was convicted of murdering two San Diego-area teenage boys. He has been on death row at San Quentin Prison for 11 years.