The Wisconsin Supreme Court says patients cannot sue the makers of defective medical devices if they are approved for sale by federal regulators.

The court ruled against a man who had a defibrillator implanted and then removed after the manufacturer, Medtronic, Inc., warned its battery had a chance of failing.

The device had been approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and was never recalled.

Joseph Blunt, Sr. of St. Francis filed a lawsuit against the company alleging negligence and other claims after he had surgery to remove the device.

The court says the lawsuit is barred by a federal law and by a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that threw out a similar case against Minneapolis-based Medtronic.

The shot that killed the lawyer was fired at point-blank range shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday, Northampton Township Police Chief Barry Pilla said.

The victim worked at Terry D. Goldberg & Associates. Police did not immediately release his name because not all of his family had been notified. He died at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne.

No arrests had been made as of early Wednesday evening and no motive was known. Police are seeking the public's help, Pilla said.

"We're specifically interested in anyone that may have been traveling north or south on Buck Road in the vicinity of the scene between 8 o'clock, 7 o'clock in the morning until 9, 9:15," Pilla said.

Police plan to stop motorists in the area Thursday morning in hopes of finding someone with information, Pilla said.

Police stopped someone driving a vehicle similar to the one the gunman fled in and questioned him, but determined later Wednesday that that person was not the gunman.

Corrections officials said Tuesday they are struggling with their response to a tentative federal court ruling this week that the state must remove as many as 57,000 inmates over the next two or three years.

The state's 33 adult prisons now hold about 158,000 inmates. But the judges said overcrowding is so severe it unconstitutionally compromises medical care of inmates, and releasing prisoners is the only solution.

"We are just now beginning to have discussions (about) who these types of inmates would be. Then, how do we get to that number?" said Matthew Cate, secretary of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The department has no contingency plan, he said, other than appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court once the ruling becomes final.

The judges said their ruling does not amount to throwing open the cell doors.

The so-called state secrets privilege was invoked by the previous administration to stymie a lawsuit challenging the government's warrantless wiretapping program.

"The attorney general has directed that senior Justice Department officials review all assertions of the state secrets privilege to ensure that is being invoked only in legally appropriate situations," Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller said Monday.

"It's vital that we protect information that if released could jeopardize national security, but the Justice Department will ensure the privilege is not invoked to hide from the American people information about their government's actions that they have a right to know," said Miller.

Even as officials promised a thorough review, government lawyers continued to invoke the state secrets law Monday in a federal appeals court in San Francisco. That case involves a lawsuit over the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

Under that program, U.S. operatives seized foreign suspects and handed them over to other countries for questioning.

Some former prisoners subjected to the process contend they were tortured. Proving that in court has been difficult, as evidence they have sought to corroborate their claims has been protected by the president's state secrets privilege.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been urging the Obama administration to drop its state secrets claim.

ACLU executive director Anthony Romero criticized the new administration's handling of the San Francisco case by continuing the legal arguments of the prior administration.

"Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama's Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue," Romero said in a statement.

Steele paid more than $37,000 to a Maryland company run by his sister, Monica Turner, for work related to his unsuccessful 2006 Senate campaign. If she was not reimbursed, both he and his sister would be violating campaign finance laws, said Steele.

"It was a legitimate reimbursement of expenses," Steele said on ABC's "This Week."

Steele became the first black national chairman in the RNC's history last month. He was the first black candidate elected to statewide office in Maryland in 2002, when he became lieutenant governor, and was chairman of the Maryland Republican Party and then chairman of GOPAC, an organization that recruits and trains Republican political candidates.

Steele's former finance chairman, Alan B. Fabian, claimed to federal prosecutors that Steele made the payment to the company, which was then out of business, as Fabian was seeking leniency on unrelated fraud charges, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Prosecutors gave Fabian no credit for cooperation when he was sentenced in October, the newspaper said.

The charges were made in a confidential sentencing memorandum sent by the U.S. Attorney's office in Maryland inadvertently along with other documents requested by the Post.

The names, including those of Madoff's relatives, numerous celebrities, dead people and charitable institutions, are listed on a 162-page document filed late Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

Each page carries 84 single-spaced lines. Some investors are listed multiple times, presumably because they had multiple accounts.

The clients include prominent people and institutions that already have been publicly revealed, such as the Wilpon family, owner of the New York Mets. The amount each person or institution invested with Madoff isn't listed.

One client listed is Ira Sorkin, the attorney who is defending Madoff against charges he perpetrated the biggest financial fraud in history. Others include Madoff's wife, sons, brother and other relatives.

The list was compiled by AlixPartners LLP, a Dallas company hired as claims agent by the trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

Prosecutors say Madoff has admitted he lost more than $50 billion belonging to investors. Defense lawyers say he has cooperated with authorities to help identify assets.

Madoff hasn't been indicted. He's being held under house arrest at his multimillion-dollar penthouse.

The man, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (GAYR'-hahrtz-ry-tur), used a number of assumed names since moving to the U.S. from Germany decades ago. He is accused of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit in Boston last summer. He was captured about a week later in Baltimore.

Lawyers in the case met briefly in court on Tuesday. A judge set a deadline of Feb. 11 for them to resolve the case or go forward with a trial.

Last month, prosecutors said they would recommend a sentence of 4 1/2 years to 5 years if Gerhartsreiter pleaded guilty.