A community college student who says he's never done anything that should attract the interest of federal law enforcement officials filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the FBI for secretly putting a GPS tracking device on his car.

Yasir Afifi, 20, says a mechanic doing an oil change on his car in October discovered the device stuck with magnets between his right rear wheel and exhaust. They weren't sure what it was, but Afifi had the mechanic remove it and a friend posted photos of it online to see whether anyone could identify it. Two days later, Afifi says, agents wearing bullet-proof vests pulled him over as he drove away from his apartment in San Jose, Calif., and demanded their property back.

Afifi's lawsuit, filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, claims the FBI violated his civil rights by putting the device on his car without a warrant. His lawyers say Afifi, who was born in the United States, was targeted because of his extensive ties to the Middle East — he travels there frequently, helps support two brothers who live in Egypt, and his father was a well-known Islamic-American community leader who died last year in Egypt.

FBI Spokesman Michael Kortan declined to discuss the lawsuit or the agency's investigation into Afifi, but said, "The FBI conducts investigations under well-established Department of Justice and FBI guidelines that determine what investigative steps or techniques are appropriate. Those guidelines also ensure the protection of civil and constitutional rights."

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a grieving father's pain over mocking protests at his Marine son's funeral must yield to First Amendment protections for free speech. All but one justice sided with a fundamentalist church that has stirred outrage with raucous demonstrations contending God is punishing the military for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

The 8-1 decision in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., was the latest in a line of court rulings that, as Chief Justice John Roberts said in his opinion for the court, protects "even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate."

The decision ended a lawsuit by Albert Snyder, who sued church members for the emotional pain they caused by showing up at his son Matthew's funeral. As they have at hundreds of other funerals, the Westboro members held signs with provocative messages, including "Thank God for dead soldiers," ''You're Going to Hell," ''God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11," and one that combined the U.S. Marine Corps motto, Semper Fi, with a slur against gay men.

Justice Samuel Alito, the lone dissenter, said Snyder wanted only to "bury his son in peace." Instead, Alito said, the protesters "brutally attacked" Matthew Snyder to attract public attention. "Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case," he said.

A former art dealer earlier convicted of tax fraud duped investors out of $6 million and used the money to buy cars, antique Japanese swords and valuable works of art, a prosecutor said during opening statements as the man's trial began in federal court Wednesday.

Rocco DeSimone has pleaded not guilty to mail fraud charges in the case. His defense attorneys declined to deliver an opening statement. But they wrote in a pre-trial court filing that they plan to argue that DeSimone's business dealings relied on information provided by his accountant, Ronald Rodrigues, who also had a financial interest in those dealings.

John McAdams, an assistant U.S. Attorney, told a jury in U.S. District Court in Providence that DeSimone convinced acquaintances and friends of friends to invest in inventions he said major international companies, such as Nintendo and Sony, had offered to buy for millions of dollars.

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A trustee recovering assets for investors in the multibillion-dollar Bernard Madoff (MAY'-dawf) fraud has sued a New York-based investment management company that operated a hedge fund that invested heavily with Madoff.

The lawsuit was filed in December and unsealed on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. It says Tremont helped funnel more than $4 billion into Madoff's Ponzi scheme through its headquarters in Rye.

Trustee Irving Picard says Tremont managed the second largest group of feeder funds to assist Madoff in his fraud. Picard says Tremont should return more than $2.1 billion it received in transfers from Madoff in return for its 15-year investment.

A 63-year-old U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement analyst accused of misusing his diplomatic passport to travel to Jordan and filing bogus expense reports is due in a West Texas courtroom.

Ahmed Adil Abdallat is scheduled to appear for a detention hearing in El Paso on Wednesday. He faces eight counts of misuse of a diplomatic passport and one of conversion of public money.

Authorities say the ICE supervisory intelligence research specialist was issued a diplomatic passport to perform temporary duties at several U.S. embassies. He's accused of using it eight times since October 2007 to make personal trips to Amman, Jordan's capital.

Abdallat is also accused of collecting about $123,000 in travel reimbursements, using fabricated receipts for lodging and car rentals.