The Supreme Court appeared inclined Tuesday to limit federal prosecutors' use of a fraud law that has helped win convictions of high-profile corporate executives and public officials, or throw out the law altogether.

The justices, hearing two challenges to the honest services fraud law, seemed to be in broad agreement that the law is vague and has been used to make a crime out of mistakes, minor transgressions and mere ethical violations.

Justice Stephen Breyer said he worries that the Obama administration's reading of the law makes criminals out of vast numbers of U.S. workers, including possibly employees who read The Daily Racing Form on the job.

"There are 150 million workers in the United States. I think 140 of them would flunk the test," Breyer said.

The vagueness of the honest services statute "is the working problem here," Justice Anthony Kennedy said.

Justice Antonin Scalia called the law "a mush of language" and pointed out that federal prosecutors have used it different ways in different prosecutions. If the Justice Department can't figure out what is embraced by this law, "I don't know how you expect the average citizen to," Scalia said.

Lawyer William L. Robinson, who represents some of the companies sued, says the terms of the settlement are confidential.

He says the settlement involves all defendants, including Learjet, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the plane's owners and contractors.

The former Blink-182 drummer was one of two survivors of a Sept. 19, 2008 plane crash that killed two pilots and two of his friends. Another survivor, celebrity disc jockey DJ AM, has since died of an accidental drug overdose.

Barker sued last November claiming the companies improperly operated and maintained the Learjet that overshot the runway and burst into flames.

A Florida judge has ruled that the state must pay for a costmetologist to cover up neo-Nazi tattoos on a man on trial in a murder case.

Judge Michael Andrews, acting on a request by the man's lawyer, ruled that the tattoos are potentially offensive and could influence a jury's opinion. He ruled that the state must pay a cosmetologist up to $150 a day during John Allen Ditullio's trial on murder and attempted murder charges and apply makeup to cover up the black ink.

The 23-year-old faces the death penalty if convicted of donning a gas mask, breaking into a neighbor's home and stabbing two people, killing one of them.

A New York psychiatrist is expected in federal court to discuss the religious writings of the man accused of abducting Elizabeth Smart.

According to Dr. Michael Welner, some of Brian David Mitchell's writings claim that Smart went with him willingly and with the permission of her parents.

Mitchell drafted the "Book of Immanuel David Isaiah II" after his arrest and interrogations by police in March 2003.

Welner is testifying as part of a 10-day competency hearing to determine whether Mitchell can stand trial in U.S. District Court. The competency hearing enters its second week Monday.

Mitchell is charged with kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines.

Prosecutors contend Mitchell is competent and faking an illness to avoid prosecution.

Condemned killer Kenneth Biros could become the first person in the country put to death with a single dose of an intravenous anesthetic instead of the usual — and faster-acting — three-drug process if his execution proceeds Tuesday.

The execution could propel other states to eventually consider the switch, which proponents say ends arguments over unnecessary suffering during injection. California and Tennessee previously considered then rejected the one-drug approach.

Though the untested method has never been used on an inmate in the United States, one difference is clear: Biros will likely die more slowly than inmates put to death with the three-drug method, which includes a drug that stops the heart.

Lethal injection experts on both sides of the debate over injection say thiopental sodium, which kills by putting people so deeply asleep they stop breathing, will take longer.

How much longer is unclear: Mark Dershwitz, an anesthesiologist who advised Ohio on its switch to the single drug, has written death should occur in under 15 minutes.

Ohio inmates have typically taken about seven minutes to die after the three-drug IV injection, which combines thiopental sodium with the drugs pancuronium bromide — which paralyzes muscles — and potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest. Dershwitz also said in a court filing last week that a single dose of thiopental sodium would take longer than the three drugs, though he didn't specify a time.

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich would claim his 5th Amendment right against self incrimination if asked to testify in a civil lawsuit spurred by his federal corruption indictment, his lawyer says.

Attorney Jay Edelson told The Associated Press on Thursday night that the former governor also would assert legislative privilege. That right protects state lawmakers and other officials from being bombarded by suits over legislation.

Four Illinois gambling casinos have filed suit to recover $90 million they were forced to pay Illinois racetracks under measures signed by Blagojevich.

The federal indictment says Blagojevich conspired to squeeze a racetrack owner for a campaign contribution in exchange for signing one of the measures in 2008.