The Supreme Court will consider an appeal by former Attorney General John Ashcroft to throw out a lawsuit seeking to hold him personally responsible for improperly arresting a Muslim U.S. citizen after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The justices on Monday stepped into a dispute that, at its roots, concerns the Bush administration's aggressive moves against Muslims and Arabs in the United States following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Abdullah al-Kidd was one of at least 70 people detained under a law aimed at insuring that witnesses would be available to appear in court and testify at trial, according to a study by civil liberties groups. Like many others, al-Kidd was never called to testify before a grand jury or in open court and was not charged with a crime.

Sean Mueller, the Colorado hedge fund manager who threatened suicide just before the collapse of his alleged $20 million Ponzi scheme, will plead guilty to defrauding investors.

Mueller was charged with racketeering, securities fraud and theft last week. On Friday, he waived his right to a preliminary hearing, and his attorney said that a plea deal has been reach with prosecutors.

"We have reach an agreement that will be settled," Rick Kornfield said. The plea deal will be made public at a Nov. 1 hearing.

Mueller has been held in custody since turning himself in last week, and has not sought bail. "Mr. Mueller is very sorry and very remorseful," Kornfield said. "It is genuine."

According to prosecutors, Mueller lied to investors about the size and success of his Mueller Capital Management and its Mueller Over Under Fund. According to the state’s lawsuit against him, Mueller admitted he scammed investors in a series of e-mails and notes written prior to his suicide attempt in April, when he was talked down from a building in suburban Denver. In a note written after the suicide attempt, Mueller admitted that documents claiming his Over-Under Fund managed $122 million were falsified. He wrote that only $15 million remained of the $20.6 million he collected.

The Jones Day law firm said today it will open an office in Brazil, one of the world's fastest-growing economies.

The office will be Jones Day's 33rd and its second in Latin America after Mexico City.

The Sao Paulo office will support global clients investing in Brazil and other Latin American countries, as well as providing counsel to Brazilian companies in their international operations. It will concentrate on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity, banking and finance and project finance/infrastructure transactions, as well as energy and capital markets.

The office will launch as a foreign legal consultancy, as required by the Brazilian Bar Association, and open once obtaining regulatory clearance. It will be a standalone Jones Day office, with no association or alliance with any local Brazilian firms.

"Brazil is a dynamic, expanding economy, and one of the world's key emerging markets," Stephen Brogan, managing partner of Jones Day, said in a statement today.

"It is a significant commodity producer, a world leader in energy, and home to some of the most important worldwide infrastructure projects undertaken in recent years."

Brogan also said Brazil has Latin America's largest and deepest stock market, massive inbound investment and soon-to-be-massive outbound investment.

A class action that an attorney claimed might bankrupt Missouri has been settled for $90,000. U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey gave final approval last week to the settlement between Missouri drivers and The Source for Public Data and Shadowsoft.

Plaintiffs claimed The Source for Public Data and Shadowsoft illegally obtained a database from the Missouri Department of Motor Vehicles, with confidential information about Missouri drivers, and sold it to third parties, violating the Federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act.

Ten employees of the Missouri Department of Motor Vehicles were named as defendants. The state itself could not be sued.

The settlement "requires the return of all personal information that is in the possession of Shadowsoft and Source for Public Data. It prevents further reselling of such information and greatly reduces the risk of identity theft and the illegal use of such information from Missouri drivers," court papers state.

Broward Circuit Judge Eileen O'Connor cleared the way Thursday for a state attorney general's office subpoena to obtain foreclosure records from the Law Offices of David J. Stern in Plantation, which has filed foreclosures with the courts by the thousands for the nation's biggest lenders.

O'Connor'stwo-paragraph ruling offered no comment or insight into her legal reasoning but authorized the subpoena under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

"She's not required to give any explanation," said Jeffrey Tew, the Tew Cardenas attorney for Stern who asked to quash the subpoena.

Stern's back-office operation, the publicly traded DJSP Enterprises, issued a statement late Thursday saying the company is cutting its staff about 10 percent and an audit committee of independent directors has started an internal investigation with Greenberg Traurig as outside counsel.

O'Connor reached the opposite conclusion of Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jack Cox, who quashed a separate subpoena last week that was served on another law firm, Shapiro & Fishman of Boca Raton and Tampa. The West Palm Beach judge refused Thursday to reconsider his decision.

Attorney General Bill McCollum has been pursuing litigation against four Florida law firms accused of shoddy foreclosure practices.

The federal judge who halted the military's ban on openly gay troops is known for working at court well past closing time, typing her own court orders and doting on two terriers who themselves are no strangers to the halls of justice.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips won praise from gays and was derided by critics as an activist judge when she issued an injunction Tuesday ending the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy, saying it violates due process rights, freedom of speech and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances guaranteed by the First Amendment.

The fallout on the polarizing topic has surprised Phillips' friends and colleagues, who said the 53-year-old registered Democrat is much better known in her inner circle for her empathy, her love of Jane Austen novels and her annual walking tours of Europe.

Phillips is popular with her court staff and works harder than anyone to get a case right, said Stephen Larson, a former federal judge in Riverside.

In her tenure as a federal judge, Phillips has handled a wide array of cases, from criminal bank robberies and drug trafficking to civil cases involving the freedoms of religion and speech, police brutality, environmental protections and labor law.