A Harrison County jury awarded the damages to residents last year, after finding the chemical giant downplayed and lied about health threats at a former zinc smelting plant in Spelter.

The high court accepted DuPont's appeal of the verdicts, and of the circuit judge's order holding it liable for the conduct of the site's previous owner.

They've been combined with an appeal from the plaintiffs, who want more people compensated for private property cleanups.

The consolidated argument hearing has not been set.

Justice Robin Davis voted to refuse each of the appeals.

Gov. Joe Manchin had urged the justices to accept the case, citing its $196 million punitive damage award.

The full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments Thursday as judges review a decision overturning Joe Nacchio's April 2007 conviction.

Prosecutors argued he sold $52 million worth of stock when he knew Denver-based Qwest Communications International Inc. was at risk while other investors did not.

In March, a three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled that the trial judge improperly barred testimony from a defense witness. Prosecutors sought a review by the full appeals court, which granted the request.

Still pending is a civil lawsuit the Securities and Exchange Commission filed against former Qwest executives, including Nacchio.

Democratic U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's attorney told a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a congressional aide's testimony about Jefferson's leadership in passing trade legislation benefiting African nations violated the Constitution's speech or debate clause.

The clause says congressmen "shall not be questioned in any other Place" for speech or debate associated with their legislative actions. A federal judge in February refused to dismiss the indictment. Jefferson, who faces up to 235 years in prison if convicted of bribery and other charges, appealed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Lytle told the appeals court judges that U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III got it right when he ruled that Jefferson's lawyers sought to apply the clause so broadly that it would make it virtually impossible to ever charge a congressman with a crime.

Jefferson's attorney, Robert P. Trout, contended the testimony about how the congressman gained influence with African leaders was at the heart of the government's case. Trout said one of the ways Jefferson gained that influence, according to grand jury testimony, was through leadership on the trade legislation.

The appeals court judges vigorously questioned Lytle and Trout for about 50 minutes, focusing on whether the indictment was tainted if prosecutors neither sought nor relied on the testimony cited by Jefferson.

Lytle said the aide volunteered the information in question, which amounted to just four lines in a massive set of grand jury transcripts.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens said he understood it might look bad to jurors if he leaves court in the opening days of trial. But his attorney said his Senate duties took priority.

"There's only one thing more important in his life than this trial, and that's doing his duty as a senator, particularly in this time of national crisis," attorney Brendan Sullivan said.

Stevens is charged with lying about more than $250,000 in home repairs and other gifts he received from an oil contractor. The trial comes at a difficult time in his political career: He is fending off a strong Democratic challenge to his seat and is tethered to a courtroom during the height of campaign season.

Being absent as Congress considers a historic $700 billion bailout of the financial market could make it look like the corruption charges have made it impossible for Stevens to do his job.

It's unclear when Stevens might have to leave court. Jury selection was scheduled to conclude Wednesday morning and opening statements are scheduled for Thursday. Capitol Hill lawmakers, meanwhile, are under pressure to pass a bailout package quickly.

The Bush administration wants quick passage of legislation that would allow the government to buy bad mortgages and other troubled assets from banks shaken by the mortgage and banking crisis.

Prosecutors didn't oppose Stevens' plan to leave court but they said Stevens shouldn't be able to use the crisis to cast himself as a dedicated senator in front of jurors. The judge said Stevens could leave court but jurors would not be told why.

Former Creek County District Judge Donald Thompson, 61, was accused of using a "penis pump" in court and convicted in June 2006 on four counts of indecent exposure.

Thompson was released in April after serving 20 months of a four-year prison term and has had to register as a sex offender. He was suspended from the bar association in late 2006.

The opinion written by Supreme Court Justice John Reif states that discipline less than disbarment has been imposed in cases involving felony convictions.

"However, the nature of the crimes in this matter led this Court to conclude that nothing less than disbarment is appropriate. The conduct was not isolated, having occurred over a fairly lengthy period of time and on four separate occasions," Reif wrote.

Thompson maintained during trial that the device was given to him as a gag gift by a hunting buddy and denied ever using it during trials. The Supreme Court said he never responded to requests for a hearing on his disbarment.

Thompson's attorney, Clark Brewster, said Thompson never had any intention of practicing law after he resigned in 2004 when the allegations were first made.

The court on Wednesday refused to hear Sprint's appeal of a March ruling by the Appellate Court of Illinois that would require Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint to dismantle its Nextel network in regions of the Midwest.

Schaumburg, Ill.-based iPCS sells Sprint-branded services. It sued Sprint after Sprint acquired Nextel Communications Inc. in 2005, saying that it was violating iPCS' exclusivity agreement by selling Nextel products in its territory.

A Cook County judge sided with iPCS in 2006, ordering Sprint to divest itself of its Nextel holdings in the affiliate's territory.