High Court

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices questioned and debated Tuesday the proper reach and power of federal law in the regulation of generic drugs and whether a Philadelphia company is liable for $21 million in damages for horrific injuries suffered by a New Hampshire woman who took one of the company's medications. Mutual Pharmaceuticals Co. asked the justices to overturn a jury decision in favor of Karen Bartlett, 53, who had a rare reaction to the painkiller sulindac, in which her skin essentially peeled away and she was left nearly blind.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that textbooks and other goods made and sold abroad can be resold online and in discount stores without violating U.S. copyright law. The outcome was a huge relief to eBay, Costco, and other businesses that trade in products made outside this country. By 6-3, the court tossed a copyright-infringement award to publisher John Wiley & Sons against Thai graduate student Supap Kirtsaeng, who used eBay to resell copies of the publisher's copyrighted books that his relatives bought abroad at cut-rate prices.

There is no debate that Karen Bartlett had a horrible reaction in 2004 to the drug sulindac, a generic painkiller made by Philadelphia's Mutual Pharmaceuticals Inc. About 60 percent of the New Hampshire woman's skin peeled away - necessitating months in a medically induced coma in a hospital burn unit - and she is mostly blind after 13 eye operations. There will be a debate Tuesday in the U.S. Supreme Court over whether federal regulations on generic drugs trump Bartlett's ability to sue for compensation in state court.

A longtime Chester County magistrate judge claims that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court violated his constitutional rights when it suspended him without pay because he was charged with fixing tickets at Philadelphia Traffic Court. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Philadelphia, District Judge Mark A. Bruno describes himself as "an extremely hardworking" and respected jurist who has been unable to pay bills or find work since being removed Feb. 1, when federal prosecutors announced charges against him and eight other former or current Traffic Court judges.

SAN FRANCISCO - For Mina Meyer and Sharon Raphael, two women in their 70s who fell in love more than four decades ago and have been married for more than four years, the U.S. Supreme Court's pending consideration of a law that prohibits the federal government from recognizing unions like theirs is about more than civil rights. It is about buying a new roof for their California home, replacing their 2005 Toyota Camry, and ensuring Meyer doesn't take a financial hit if Raphael dies first.

The Toms River Board of Education has been ordered to pay a former student $68,000 for failing to take reasonable actions to stop other students from harassing him because of their perceptions of his sexual orientation, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office announced Thursday. The award includes compensation for pain and suffering, plus interest, in the landmark case that began more than a decade ago and at one point was heard by the state Supreme Court. Despite a 2007 decision by the high court remanding the matter to the state, the school district's attorney said officials might challenge the state's order, a decision likely to come later this month.

WASHINGTON - In a historic argument for gay rights, President Obama on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to overturn California's same-sex marriage ban and turn a skeptical eye on similar prohibitions across the country. The Obama administration's friend-of-the-court brief marked the first time a U.S. president has urged the high court to expand the right of gays and lesbians to wed. The filing unequivocally calls on the justices to strike down California's Proposition 8 ballot measure, although it stops short of the soaring rhetoric on marriage equality Obama expressed in his inaugural address in January.

CALL IT the Grand Imposition. In the last two months, Mayor Nutter's standoff with the city's largest union has gone from a dead-end cold war to a blistering dispute with enormous implications for cities and unions across Pennsylvania. Nutter has asked the state Supreme Court for permission to impose contract terms unilaterally on blue-collar District Council 33, which has been working on the terms of an expired contract since 2009. The case has prompted the state's leading labor and government groups to sound the clarion for their respective causes.

WASHINGTON - Vernon Hugh Bowman seems comfortable with the old way of doing things, right down to the rotary-dial telephone he said he was using in a conference call with reporters. But the 75-year-old Indiana farmer figured out a way to benefit from a high-technology product, soybeans that are resistant to weed-killers, without always paying the high price that such genetically engineered seeds typically bring. In so doing, he ignited a legal fight with seed-giant Monsanto Co. that has now come before the Supreme Court, with argument taking place Tuesday.

THE ESCALATING battle between the Nutter administration and the city's largest union is shaping up to be a lightning rod for public-sector labor interests unhappy with the mayor. Seeking legal permission to impose contract terms on blue-collar District Council 33, the administration on Tuesday asked the state Supreme Court to fast-track its case. The union struck back Wednesday by blasting Nutter for what it sees as an attempt to erase decades of progress for organized labor. And the stage is being set for a dramatic legal battle that could change the nature of labor negotiations across the state.