The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday not to get involved in a dispute over how to prevent invasive Asian carp from making their way into the Great Lakes.

The justices turned down a new request from Michigan to consider ordering closure of Chicago-area shipping locks to prevent the fish from threatening the Great Lakes. The locks could provide a pathway to Lake Michigan for the unwanted carp.

The court had previously declined twice to order the locks closed on an emergency basis while it considered whether to hear the case. This time, the court rejected a proposal by Michigan and six other states to use a long-standing case involving water diversion from Lake Michigan as a vehicle for seeking to permanently sever a man-made linkage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin.

Michigan has led the legal fight to close the locks, arguing that the ravenous carp, weighing up to 100 pounds, could decimate the lakes' $7 billion fishing industry by starving out competitors such as salmon and walleye.

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide whether a California law banning the sale and rental of violent video games to minors violated constitutional free-speech rights, the first time it will consider a video game case.

The justices agreed to hear an appeal by the state after a U.S. appeals court based in California struck down the law, which also imposes strict video game labeling requirements, as unconstitutional.

The high court is expected to hear arguments in the case and then issue a ruling during its upcoming term, which begins in October. It will be one of the most important cases so far for the upcoming term.

In appealing to the Supreme Court, the state argued that the free-speech guarantees of the First Amendment do not bar a state from prohibiting the sale of violent video games to minors under 18.

The law, which was adopted in 2005, has never taken effect because of the legal challenge.

The law prohibits the sale of an interactive video game to anyone under 18 if the game was so violent it was "patently offensive," according to prevailing community standards and lacked serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

Michael Gallagher, president and chief executive of the Entertainment Software Association, which represents U.S. computer and video game publishers, said the group looks forward to presenting its arguments and defending the industry's works.

Lorillard, the maker of Newport, Maverick and True cigarettes, says its first-quarter profit climbed 26 percent as domestic wholesale shipments and average prices grew.

The nation's third-biggest cigarette maker said higher federal excise taxes on smokes helped boost its revenue.

Lorillard said Monday its earnings rose to $232 million, or $1.50 per share, in the three months ended March 31. That's up from earnings of $184 million, or $1.09 a share, a year ago.

It says revenue climbed to $1.36 billion from $917 million as domestic wholesale shipments of discount brand Maverick grew 48.7 percent. Excluding federal excise taxes, revenue was $923 million partly on higher average prices. Wall Street predicted revenue of $802.7 million.

White House counsel Bob Bauer, President Barack Obama's point man in the search for a new Supreme Court justice, manages to get credit both for an even temperament and his finesse with a sledge hammer.

The combination is evident in one of Bauer's favorite memories from the 2008 presidential primaries, when Obama campaign aides worried that opposing forces were trying to depress voter turnout. Bauer, the campaign's top lawyer, confidently reassured staffers that he'd have anyone engaged in such conduct arrested.

It was a morale-boosting bit of bluster that campaign workers quickly turned into a T-shirt that had "I (heart) Bauer" on the front and his quote — "We may have to arrest people" — splashed across the back.

When the Gangwon provincial government was preparing a bid to host the Special Olympics Winter Games in 2013, the Special Olympics headquarters in Washington recommended it hire Seoul-based law firm Yulchon, known for expertise in the fields of culture and sports. One of Yulchon’s advisers is former Deputy Culture Minister Oh Jee-chul.

To win the bid, Oh contacted the Special Olympics headquarters directly and used his experience and personal connections in the United States to form a close relationship with the organization. In February, Gangwon’s Pyeongchang County was chosen to host the 2013 games.

Law firms in Korea are branching into consulting, and snapping up former government officials to bring them contacts and experience. And although the law prohibits officials from joining private industry in a similar field for two years after leaving service - to keep them from lobbying their former ministry or department - there’s no restriction on joining law firms.

Although recruiting former government officials isn’t entirely new for law firms, in the past they concentrated on key officials in the fields of economics, trade or industry. Today, they’re interested in non-economic fields, and want junior-level officials who worked on individual projects and issues.

Suffolk University Law School plans to host a roundtable discussion on the effect of state budget cuts on the Massachusetts court system.

Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall will be among the panelists Monday at the law school in Boston.

Other participants include Robert Mulligan, who's chief justice of the administrative office of the trial court; and William Leahy, chief counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.

The roundtable discussion is sponsored by the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service, the New England Legal Foundation and the Boston Bar Association.