The court's 5-4 decision puts new limits on the ability of police to search a vehicle immediately after the arrest of a suspect.

Justice John Paul Stevens said in the majority opinion that warrantless searches still may be conducted if a car's passenger compartment is within reach of a suspect who has been removed from the vehicle or there is reason to believe evidence of a crime will be found.

"When these justifications are absent, a search of an arrestee's vehicle will be unreasonable unless police obtain a warrant," Stevens said.

Justice Samuel Alito, in dissent, complained that the decision upsets police practice that has developed since the court first authorized warrantless searches immediately following an arrest.

"There are cases in which it is unclear whether an arrestee could retrieve a weapon or evidence," Alito said.

Even more confusing, he said, is asking police to determine whether the vehicle contains evidence of a crime. "What this rule permits in a variety of situations is entirely unclear," Alito said.

The high court agreed to hear a U.S. Justice Department appeal defending the 1999 animal cruelty law after it was struck down for infringing free-speech protections.

A U.S. appeals court declared the law unconstitutional and overturned the conviction of a Virginia man, Robert Stevens, who sold three videos of pit bulls fighting each other and attacking hogs and wild boars.

His conviction in 2005 was the first in the country under the law. Stevens had been sentenced to 37 months in prison.

By a 10-3 vote, the appeals court rejected the government's argument that, for the first time in more than 25 years, there was a new category of speech not covered by constitutional free-speech protections. Usually, videos and other depictions are protected as free speech, even if they show abhorrent conduct.

"I love you all. May the Lord be with you. Peace. I'm done," Michael Rosales said in his brief, final statement.

Three of his brothers were among the witnesses at the injection. No friends or relatives of his victim were present.

Rosales was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.

Rosales, 35, confessed to the 1997 slaying of Mary Felder a day after her body was found by her grandson, who routinely checked on her. Rosales told police he was high on cocaine and looking for money when he broke into her home as she slept. She was attacked when she woke up.

Rosales was the 13th Texas prisoner executed this year in the nation's most active capital punishment state.

About 90 minutes before Rosales was scheduled to be taken to the death chamber, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals to delay the lethal injection so Rosales could have more time to assemble a state clemency petition and press claims he may be mentally retarded and therefore ineligible for execution.

Prosecutors argued that deadlines for clemency petitions had passed and that the mental retardation issue already had been reviewed and rejected by the appeals courts, including a federal appeals court which in 2004 had stopped Rosales' then-scheduled execution.

Felder, a grandmotherly presence in the neighborhood where she was known lovingly as "Miss Mary," was pummeled and stabbed with a two-pronged fork and a steak knife. Records show she had 113 wounds, including some from needle-nose pliers.

Gatlin had sued those groups in federal court, saying his rights were violated under the Americans with Disabilities Act. He said he was discriminated against because his first of two doping violations, in 2001, was for taking prescribed medication to treat attention deficit disorder.

Because that penalty was on the books, his second violation, in 2006, triggered a suspension that kept him from defending his 2004 Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Games. In June 2008, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected Gatlin's appeal of his doping ban, and he took the matter to U.S. court.

Both USADA CEO Travis Tygart and USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said Wednesday their groups would not enter into an agreement that would undermine the decision by CAS.

"The parties are actively engaged in discussions regarding a final, formal, out-of-court resolution of this matter, which we believe may soon be reached," Seibel wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The civil clerk for the federal court in Pensacola said the case is considered closed but is still under the court's jurisdiction until May 10. The court is waiting for the attorneys to file final paperwork stating the case is completely closed under the terms of the agreement.

"The settlement documents are not final," Gatlin's lawyer, Joe Zarzaur, wrote the AP.

U.S. District Court Judge Lacey Collier issued an order in February dismissing the case after Gatlin informed the court there was a settlement.

Anti-abortion groups have won approval in at least 18 states for specialized license plates with the tagline "Choose Life," even as officials in New Jersey and other states fight the requests on various grounds.

The cases raise unresolved questions about whether license plates — or even portions of them — convey government or private speech. To raise revenues, many states let drivers buy specialty plates that recognize everything from military units and colleges to sports teams and nonprofit groups.

"Legislatures can say there might be certain controversies they do not want discussed on license plates," Assistant New Jersey Attorney General Andrea Silkowitz argued Tuesday in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court, referring to an Illinois case.

Silkowitz argued that her state rejected the "Choose Life" plate not to avoid controversy but because the relevant law limits designs to group names and logos, and does not permit slogans.

In 2003, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission approved a request from the New York-based Children First Foundation, but later rejected the proposed design, which included a small graphic of a sun, two children's faces and the words "Choose Life."

The New Jersey agency also dismissed a later attempt to substitute a new domain name, "NJChoose-Life.Org," for the original "Fund-Adoption.Org" on the plate.