The U.S. Supreme Court refused to insulate the drug industry from having to pay overtime to thousands of sales representatives, turning away appeals from units of Novartis AG and Merck & Co.

The companies sought to overturn a federal appeals court’s conclusion that their salespeople are covered by a federal wage- and-hour law. The decision against the Novartis unit leaves the company with claims of as much as $100 million on behalf of 2,500 past and current employees.

Drugmakers are facing a wave of suits by sales representatives for overtime pay. More than a dozen suits have been filed, including cases against Johnson & Johnson, Bristol- Myers Squibb Co. and a GlaxoSmithKline Plc unit. Drug companies have long treated sales representatives as exempt from the overtime requirements, according to court papers filed by an industry trade group.

The lower court ruling “threatens untold costs in unforeseen liability,” the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America argued in the Novartis case.

The rulings by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came in two separate

Michigan's court system is studying whether to implement certification standards for translators, an effort to address criticisms that help for those who aren't fluent in English is uneven and sometimes violates suspects' constitutional rights.

A report from the State Bar of Michigan issued in June 2010 concluded translation services are underfunded and "inconsistently applied across courts, in many cases in violation of constitutional and federal requirements."

Court administrators are now considering whether to develop policies, training levels and continuing education requirements, are studying how much money courts spend for interpreters, and are looking for resources to find interpreters and ways to make changes in tough budget times.

Ionia-Montcalm counties Circuit Judge Suzanne Hoseth Kreeger is heading a state courts committee working on the issue.

The South Dakota Supreme Court will announce Monday whether it will allow expanded media coverage of trial courts.

The Supreme Court has allowed electronic recording equipment and cameras when it hears appeals, but those devices are not allowed in other court proceedings.

Chief Justice David Gilbertson appointed a committee of judges, lawyers and the media to study the issue.

It developed two proposals. One would allow cameras and recording equipment only if the judge and all parties agree. The other would presume they can be used unless the presiding judge thinks they would interfere with the fairness of the proceedings.

Kentucky appears to have violated a judge's order stopping all executions and preventing the state from taking any action to carry out a lethal injection by purchasing a key drug used in the process, an attorney for several death row inmates said Thursday.

Public defender David Barron wants to bar the state from ever using the 18 grams of sodium thiopental the state acquired this month.

Despite a national shortage of sodium thiopental, Kentucky bought enough of the fast-acting narcotic from a Georgia company to carry out three lethal injections. The packaging indicated the drug was made by Sandoz International GmbH, a European generics company, Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin said. The packaging had an expiration date of May 2014.

In two filings in Franklin Circuit Court, Barron said that by even purchasing the drug, Kentucky violated the injunction handed down in September by Judge Phillip Shepherd. The Kentucky Supreme Court is reviewing a judge's order in one case regarding the state's lethal injection procedures and has halted all executions in the interim.

The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that West Virginia courts aren't the place to challenge most decisions the Secondary School Activities Commission makes about high school sports, from calls on the field to the application of rules.

The SSAC's powers are clearly spelled out in state law, and as long as disputes fall within those powers, they "are not subject to judicial review," Justice Thomas McHugh said in his opinion for the court.

The ruling elaborates on a decision the court rendered last fall in a dispute over the Class AAA high school football championship game and is clearly intended to dissuade similar lawsuits.

The court refused to hear on Tuesday an appeal from two newspaper companies, the American Civil Liberties Union and a Nye County brothel called the Shady Lady Ranch.

Laws went into effect in Nevada in 1979 that prohibited brothel advertising in counties where prostitution is illegal. Prostitution is illegal in five counties, which include Las Vegas and Reno, and 10 Nevada counties authorize prostitution by local ordinance.

A federal judge said the laws were overly broad and unconstitutional, but the judgment was overturned by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court upheld that ruling.