Ali al-Marri has been held in virtual isolation in a Navy brig near Charleston, S.C., for nearly 5 1/2 years. He is challenging President George W. Bush's authority to subject a legal resident of the United States to indefinite military detention without being charged or tried.

The justices are expected to consider al-Marri's case when they meet in private on Tuesday. If they agree to hear arguments, over the Bush administration's opposition, they could say so the same day.

Bush's legal team has claimed authority for such detentions and has argued aggressively for it in court papers.

But the case would not be scheduled for argument until sometime in the late winter or early spring, during Obama's first months in office.

Al-Marri's fate will wind up in Obama's hands in any event, but a decision by the court to hear his challenge would force the new president to confront the issue quickly.

In the event the dispute makes it as far as a court hearing, the new administration's lawyers would have to argue the same basic position urged by Bush's team, despite Obama's repeated criticism during the presidential campaign that Bush was too aggressive in asserting executive authority.

The Red Army Faction, which emerged from German student protests against the Vietnam War, killed 34 people before disbanding in 1998. It subscribed to Marxist-Leninist ideology and sought to overthrow the capitalist West German government and fight perceived U.S. imperialism.

The Stuttgart state court ruled that it found no grounds for Christian Klar, 56, to remain behind bars any longer, spokeswoman Josefine Koeblitz said. After his Jan. 3 release he will remain on probation for five years, the court ruled.

The judges found "no evidence of a continued threat," Koeblitz said.

The court noted that Klar had shown himself "completely changed," urging against armed struggle.

Klar was convicted of involvement in nine murders, including those of federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback, industrialist Hanns-Martin Schreyer and Dresdner Bank chief Juergen Ponto — all in 1977, when the movement was at its peak.

He was sentenced to six concurrent life sentences, as well as individual 15-year, 14-year and 12-year sentences.

Before the ruling, Buback's son Michael called on Klar to divulge all the details of the killing, including who fired the fatal shots.

Trevor L. Blackann, 34, pleaded guilty in federal court to not reporting more than $4,100 in illegal gifts from lobbyists on his 2003 tax forms, including tickets to the World Series, concerts and sporting events, free airfare and transportation, free meals and gifts and entertainment at a "gentleman's club."

The guilty plea came in U.S. District Court before Judge Richard W. Roberts.

In court documents, Blackann said two unnamed lobbyists worked directly with Abramoff, who has been sent to prison for corrupting Capitol Hill lawmakers with expensive meals, golf junkets, luxury sports tickets and other gifts. These lobbyists gave him the World Series tickets, among other items.

Abramoff is now helping prosecutors go after other people he bribed. With his help, the Justice Department has won convictions against former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and several top Capitol Hill aides.

Blackann said he pushed for a political appointment at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as "official action beneficial" to Equipment Rental Co., a construction rental company. Blackann worked for Blunt from 1998 to 2001 and for Bond from 2001 to 2005.

Blackann said in court documents he knew "the lobbyists gave these things of value for or because of official actions they were seeking from him or had obtained from him."

The FCC this week appealed a ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, saying that court was wrong to throw out the case and a $550,000 fine against CBS Corp. in July.

The appellate court cited the FCC practice of not considering objectionable images indecent if they are "fleeting."

In Jackson's halftime show at the 2004 Super Bowl, which spawned the case, she briefly flashed a breast as she performed with Justin Timberlake.

The FCC said the court incorrectly applied a rule — since changed — regarding expletives that required a profanity be repeated before it is deemed indecent. The FCC contends the rule didn't apply to images.

Reaction to the appeal was swift from the Media Access Project, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the appellate court on behalf of a group of TV writers, directors and producers.

"The impact of the FCC's decision on the creative process is very profound," said the group's chief executive, Andrew Jay Schwartzman. "The FCC's decisions in this area have made it very difficult for creative artists to exercise their craft."

At the time, broadcasters did not employ a video delay for live events, a practice that changed within a week of the game.

The FCC also has an appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court in a New York case involving profanity uttered by Cher during a December 2002 music awards show and by Nicole Richie during a December 2003 awards show, both carried on Fox stations.

The agency has asked the court to rule in that earlier case before taking on the Jackson incident.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted three lawsuits seeking to overturn Proposition 8. The amendment passed this month with 52 percent of the vote. The court did not elaborate on its decision.

All three cases claim the ban abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.

Louis Bressler, 25, was convicted Wednesday in connection with the Dec. 1 death of Kevin Shields. He could be sentenced to as many as 24 years in prison and is to stand trial next month in the slaying of another soldier.

Jurors acquitted Bressler of first-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree murder in furtherance of a felony and aggravated robbery.

Bressler's lawyer argued that no physical evidence linked him to Shields' slaying and that two co-defendants, also Iraq war vets, conspired to frame him. The co-defendants have reached plea agreements in Shields' slaying and are serving prison terms.

Bressler is one of at least five Fort Carson soldiers who served in Iraq with the 4th Brigade Combat Team and who later were accused of various slayings at home over the past 15 months. A sixth team veteran faces attempted murder charges. An Army task force is investigating whether there are any common factors in the slayings.

Prosecutors said Bressler killed Shields because Shields knew too much about robberies that Bressler and fellow veterans Bruce Bastien Jr. and Kenneth Eastridge planned to commit. They also said Shields had beaten Bressler in a fight before the slaying. All four had been drinking heavily.

Shields' family said he was out celebrating both his birthday and news that his wife was pregnant with their second child.

The prosecution's case suffered a blow when co-defendant Bastien refused to testify against Bressler, in violation of his plea agreement. El Paso County District Judge Theresa Cisneros refused a request by Deputy District Attorney Jack Roth that Bastien be compelled to testify.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo alleged the rebel commanders planned and led an attack in September 2007 by about 1,000 heavily armed rebels on the Haskanita camp in Sudan's Darfur region that left 12 peacekeepers dead and eight wounded.

He has accused the rebels of committing war crimes, including murder, pillaging and deliberately attacking peacekeepers.

Rights groups welcomed the announcement as a sign that the international community will not tolerate attacks on peacekeepers.

"Civilians rely on peacekeepers for protection, and any hope for restoring security for civilians in Darfur depends on peacekeepers being able to do their job," Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.