The justices did not comment Monday on their order in an appeal filed by Missouri Gas Energy. In 2008, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the natural gas is subject to taxation.

The ruling could mean millions for several counties in the state and could affect similar disputes in Kansas and Texas.

Harriet Miers, President George W. Bush's White House counsel and briefly his nominee to the Supreme Court, handled the company's appeal in its lawsuit against Woods County, Okla.

The justices on Monday ordered the Florida Supreme Court to take a new look at the case of Thomas Rigterink in light of their ruling last week in another Florida case.

The Florida court threw out Rigterink's conviction and death sentence for the slayings of Allison Sousa, 23, and Jeremy Jarvis, 24. The court cited problems with the Miranda rights warning police gave Rigterink before he confessed to the killings.

But the Supreme Court last week declared Florida's Miranda warning sufficient, despite complaints it wasn't clear a suspect could have a lawyer present during questioning.

K&L Gates LLP, Pittsburgh’s largest law firm, said Monday it has established an office in Warsaw, marking its 36th location and third new site so far this year. It is the first Pittsburgh-based firm to open an office in the Polish city.

The office is expected to open March 15. K&L Gates hired a team of lawyers from Hogan & Hartson Jamka, the Warsaw office of Washington, D.C.-based Hogan & Hartson LLP, to staff it. Maciej Jamka will serve as administrative partner of K&L Gates’ Warsaw office which K&L Gates Chairman and Global Managing Partner Peter Kalis said via e-mail will include “approximately 30 lawyers.”

Kalis said Warsaw is a strategic location. “Poland is a Top 20 global economy and one that has withstood the challenges of the global financial crisis,” Kalis said in a prepared statement.

In January, K&L Gates opened offices in Tokyo and Moscow. It employs roughly 2,000 lawyers, including 237 in Pittsburgh, and topped $1 billion in 2009 revenue.

K&L Gates expects to move into new offices in Downtown Pittsburgh in One Oliver Plaza, a few blocks from its present home in the Henry W. Oliver Building, later this month. The date has not been disclosed publicly.

The D.C. office of law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP has relocated its headquarters to larger space downtown.

The firm said that its new location, on the top floor of 1717 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, more than doubles the size of its offices and will allow for continued expansion of its practice.

"This relocation marks an important step in Curtis’ ongoing expansion in Washington,” said D.C. Managing Partner Daniel Lenihan.

The firm said that it has added four senior lawyers to its D.C. office since December 2008.

According to its Web site, Curtis has three U.S. offices with 16 professionals working in Washington, five working in Houston and more than 100 based in New York. In addition, Curtis has 10 international offices.

Arthur Nadel, a former Florida fund manager dubbed a "mini-Madoff" for running a decade-long investment fraud of nearly $400 million, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to criminal charges.

Nadel, 77, disappeared for two weeks before his arrest in January 2009. He had left a letter for his wife imploring her to use a trust fund for her benefit and "sell the Subaru if you need money," a reference to their motor vehicle.

The FBI arrested Sarasota, Florida-based Nadel in his home state, but the case was moved to New York because he traded through a brokerage in the city, Shoreline Trading, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Nadel, who looked frail in court and remained seated throughout the proceeding, pleaded guilty to an indictment of 15 charges, including securities fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud before Manhattan federal court Judge John Koeltl.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday explored the tension between Americans' right to free speech and a federal law that prohibits aid to terrorist groups, and hardly anyone seemed clear about the lines of demarcation.

The case stems from a challenge to an antiterrorism act by American advocates who say they want to support only the peaceful efforts of groups that the State Department has deemed to be terrorist organizations.

"This is a difficult case for me," allowed Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, whose vote often is the one that decides closely divided cases.

Georgetown law professor David D. Cole, who represents the Humanitarian Law Project, said his clients do not want to provide material support to the groups, but only to help them pursue peaceful ways to end conflict. "The government has spent a decade arguing that our clients cannot advocate for peace, cannot inform about international human rights," Cole told the court.

The project wants to support the lawful activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a militant group in Turkey known as the PKK, and a Sri Lankan group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Both are among dozens of organizations on the State Department list, along with better-known groups such as al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan countered that, as individuals, Cole's clients can advocate whatever they want. But Congress was within its rights, she said, to determine that it was impossible to separate support of any terrorist group's peaceful activities from its violent goals.