SECURITIES

High Court Hears Arguments in Challenge to Securities Suits: The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a high-stakes challenge to the validity of several hundred thousand securities fraud cases, with almost $4.6 billion in claims hanging on the outcome. The case, centering on the statute of limitations for fraud lawsuits, is a replay of an almost identical dispute that split the high court 4 to 4 during its last term. The controversy centers on a 1991 law that retroactively extended the statute of limitations on thousands of securities fraud cases that had already been dismissed by federal courts. The issue before the justices is whether Congress, by in effect ordering the courts to reconsider earlier decisions to dismiss the cases, violated the constitutional separation of powers.