The court ruled Tuesday 6-3 that a U.S. Postal Service employee may pursue her lawsuit under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

The law does specifically bars reprisals against private sector employees who complain about discrimination. But it is silent as to federal workers. Justice Samuel Alito said in the ruling that the law indeed does apply to both categories of employees.

Berry is the second U.S. inmate executed since the Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's lethal injection procedure in April. His appeals were denied by the high court and he was put to death by injection at 6:15 p.m. CDT Wednesday.

Berry confessed that he abducted Mary Bounds in 1987 as she left church choir practice in Houston, Miss., then beat her to death and dumped her body on a rural road.

Courts rejected arguments from Berry's attorneys that he was mentally retarded.

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps says Berry told him he had no remorse and that "he felt he had served 21 years and that's enough."

The jurors, who took feverish notes during opening statements, sat motionless while the video played. Their eyes fixed on a 4-by-4-foot monitor just outside the jury box. In the courtroom, the lights were dimmed and blinds drawn across windows. There were several other monitors in the room, including one facing the crowded gallery.

A grim, intent Kelly watched the whole video on a small monitor placed on the defense table, only occasionally averting his eyes. At times, the 41-year-old rocked in his chair or rested his chin in his hand.

Before putting the tape into a videocassette player, a prosecutor walked across the stately courtroom, held it out for the defense team to see and entered it into the record as "People's Exhibit No. 1."

The roughly 27-minute homemade video shows a man having sex with a young female, who is naked for most of the recording — except for a necklace with a cross dangling from it.

In a 7-2 ruling in a case from Kentucky, the justices permitted states to exempt interest on their own bonds from taxation while taxing residents for interest on bonds issued by other states.

In the $2.5 trillion municipal bond market, 42 states exempt some or all interest on their bonds from income taxes, while taxing interest on bonds from other states.

The states have said that throwing out the system of exemptions that began 90 years ago would have a devastating impact on state finances.

Industry groups warned of possible turmoil in the municipal bond market if the existing setup were dismantled.

In the majority opinion, Justice David Souter said that the state tax exemptions go back to 1919 and have not hindered commerce among the states.

In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito said the majority decision "invites other protectionist laws."

Souter responded that that the dissent "rightly praises the virtues of the free market." But Souter said that overturning the tax exemptions now would upset the market in bonds based on the experience of nearly a century.

Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in an opinion written by Chief Justice Ron George.

Outside the courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as news spread of the decision.

"Our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation," the court wrote.

The city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples and gay rights groups sued in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex wedding march.

"Today the California Supreme Court took a giant leap to ensure that everybody — not just in the state of California, but throughout the country — will have equal treatment under the law," said City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who argued the case for San Francisco.

The California Supreme Court was scheduled to rule on a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter-approved law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

If the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, California could become the second state after Massachusetts where gay and lesbian residents can marry.

"What happens in California, either way, will have a huge impact around the nation. It will set the tone," said Geoffrey Kors, executive director of the gay rights group Equality California.

Supporters and opponents of gay marriage predicted a number of possible outcomes from the California court's seven justices, six of whom were appointed by Republican governors.

Like the top court in Massachusetts, they could hold that prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying constitutes unlawful discrimination and order state lawmakers to remedy the situation.

Attorneys for Williams are scheduled to argue in front of a three-judge panel on Wednesday that prosecutors must divulge all details about a racial slur used by an investigator in the case.

The dispute over the slur postponed Williams' retrial for reckless manslaughter, which was to have begun in January.

The 40-year-old Williams was convicted in 2004 of trying to cover up the shooting death of hired driver Costas Christofi two years earlier. The jury acquitted him of aggravated manslaughter but deadlocked on the reckless manslaughter count. Williams has been free on bail since the shooting.