The Obama administration won a legal battle Friday in the long-standing fight over where to bury the nation's nuclear waste, but it's not likely to be the last.

The federal appeals court in Washington ruled against South Carolina, Washington state and others that want to ship radioactive spent nuclear fuel they are temporarily storing to a repository 90 miles from Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain.

Congress chose Yucca Mountain as the leading candidate for waste disposal. But opponents are concerned about contamination, and the Obama administration said it would not consider the site and would look for alternatives.

The appeals court ruled that it's not an appropriate time for it to intervene because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hasn't made a final decision yet on the status of Yucca Mountain. So the court threw out the case.

But the court pointed out that the commission is required under the law to issue a final decision within four years of an application, which will come in 2012 for the Bush administration's application for construction at Yucca Mountain. The court noted the commission's decision can be reviewed by the court and that it can also be sued for failing to act by the deadline.

Other than Yucca Mountain, the United States has no long-term plan for disposing of its nuclear waste. A federal report issued early in June said the U.S. has generated more than 82,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste, which it was storing at 80 sites in 35 states.

A federal appeals court has struck down Michigan's ban on the consideration of race and gender in university admissions.

In a 2-1 decision Friday, the court said Michigan's Proposal 2 is unconstitutional because it burdens minorities. Voters approved the amendment to the state constitution in 2006, and the court notes the only way people who disagree with it can seek change is in another statewide vote.

The law has forced the University of Michigan and other public schools to change admissions policies giving minorities preferential treatment.

The ban passed with 58 percent of the vote nearly five years ago and also applies to government hiring.

California, Nebraska and Washington state have similar bans. Arizona and Colorado voters have rejected them in recent years.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia exercised a rarely used power last fall to let Philip Morris USA and three other big tobacco companies delay making multimillion-dollar payments for a program to help people quit smoking.

Scalia, a cigarette smoker himself, justified acting on his own by predicting that at least three other justices would see things his way and want to hear the case, and that the high court then would probably strike down the expensive judgment against the companies.

This week, the court said he was wrong about that.

On a court that almost always acts as a group, Scalia singlehandedly blocked a state court order requiring the tobacco companies to pay $270 million to start a smoking cessation program in Louisiana. The payment was ordered as part of a class-action lawsuit that Louisiana smokers filed in 1996. They won a jury verdict seven years ago.

Scalia said in September that the companies met a tough standard to justify the Supreme Court's intervention.

"I think it reasonably probable that four justices will vote to grant certiorari," Scalia said, using the legal term to describe the way the court decides to hear most appeals, "and significantly possible that the judgment below will be reversed."

Not only did the justices say Monday they were leaving the state court order in place, there were not even four votes to hear the companies' full appeal. And the court provided no explanation of its action.

Metro Atlanta started the week under the threat of a court order that could have shut off its main water source for 3 million people, making Georgia the needy neighbor in legal negotiations with neighboring Alabama and Florida.

It ends the week holding some of the best cards at the table.

A ruling Tuesday from a three-judge panel on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an lower court order that would have severely curtailed Atlanta's access to water from Lake Lanier on the Chattahoochee River starting in July 2012 unless the three states struck a deal.

Then the appeals court went even further, saying that Georgia has a legal right to water from the lake.

Those involved in the dispute say the ruling fundamentally strengthens Georgia's hand in the long-running fight with its neighbors over how much water metro Atlanta can take from a watershed serving all three states. Georgia officials have been negotiating under the gun for the last two years because of the looming water cutoff.

"We're in a better position because the court has now removed the 2012 deadline," said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, who said he still wants to negotiate a final agreement. Alabama has already said it will appeal the ruling to the full court, while Florida Gov. Rick Scott's office was still reviewing it Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors moved Tuesday to dismiss a 1994 racketeering indictment against mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger to focus on a later indictment that charged the newly captured fugitive of participating in 19 murders.

But U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf told prosecutors during a court hearing that dismissal of the indictment is "not automatic" and that he would give Bulger's provisional attorney, Peter Krupp, a day to consult with Bulger to see whether he objects to the dismissal.

The earlier indictment, which charged Bulger with extortion, loan sharking, witness tampering and conspiracy, prompted Bulger to flee Boston just before it was handed up in early 1995. He remained a fugitive until last week, when he was apprehended in Santa Monica, Calif., with his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig.

Krupp told Wolf the decision to drop the first indictment appears to be "forum shopping" on the part of prosecutors, an apparent reference to the fact that Wolf — who has presided in that case since 1995 — would no longer be the judge overseeing the Bulger prosecution. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns is assigned to the 1999 indictment, which includes the murder charges.

Prosecutors declined to comment on allegations of "forum shopping." Spokeswoman Christina DiIorio-Sterling said, "Our submission speaks for itself."

Wolf is the judge who in the 1990s held hearings that exposed the Boston FBI's corrupt relationship with Bulger and his cohort, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.