Supreme Court Issues Orders in 1,700 Cases as Session Opens

The Supreme Court, returning to the bench from its summer recess, issued orders in nearly 1,700 cases Monday. In all but a few, it simply denied an appeal. Among the highlights, the court:

* Asked the Justice Department for its view of a 1988 federal law that aims to regulate Native American gambling (Seminole Tribe vs. Florida, 94-12). The court is likely to enter the high-stakes battle later in its term and resolve disputes over whether states can block casino gambling on reservations.

* Refused to review a U.S. appeals court ruling lambasting the Justice Department for its handling of the deportation of accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk (Rison vs. Demjanjuk, 93-1875). This ruling does not prevent the government from seeking to deport the 74-year-old former auto worker from Cleveland again.

* Refused to revive author Dan Moldea’s $10-million lawsuit against the New York Times over a harsh book review (Moldea vs. New York Times, 94-192). Last year, a federal appeals court said that Moldea’s suit could go to trial because he alleged that the reviewer had misstated facts about his book. But the same court later reversed itself and threw out the suit after it concluded that the disputed passages were matters of interpretation, not fact.

* Sided with federal agents who seized the 65-million-year-old remains of a dinosaur discovered on Native American land in 1990 (Black Hills Institute vs. United States, 93-1825). The researchers who discovered the fossil in South Dakota objected to the seizure, but the lower courts agreed that the bones should not have been removed.

* Dismissed an appeal by women’s rights advocates who objected to state laws against “wrongful birth” lawsuits (Sejpal vs. Corson, 93-1820). A Pennsylvania woman sought to sue her doctors because they had failed to tell her of the risks of giving birth to a retarded child or to test the fetus in the womb. But Pennsylvania and eight other states specifically have barred such lawsuits.