Nearly 150 years after Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant fought in northern Virginia, a conflict over the battlefield is taking shape in a courtroom.

The dispute involves whether a Walmart should be built near the Civil War site, and the case pits preservationists and some residents of a rural northern Virginia town against the world's largest retailer and local officials who approved the Walmart Supercenter.

Both sides are scheduled to make arguments before a judge Tuesday.

The proposed Walmart is located near the site of the Battle of the Wilderness, which is viewed by historians as a critical turning point in the war. An estimated 185,000 Union and Confederate troops fought over three days in 1864, and 30,000 were killed, injured or went missing. The war ended 11 months later.

The 143,000-square-foot space planned by the Bentonville, Ark., retailer would be outside the limits of the protected national park where the core battlefield is located. The company has stressed the store would be within an area already dotted with retail locations, and in an area zoned for commercial use.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors in August 2009 approved the special use permit Wal-Mart needed to build, but the National Trust for Historic Preservation and residents who live within three miles of the site challenged the board's decision.

A federal lawsuit accuses a Pennsylvania school district of imposing excessive and illegal fines on truant children or their families, including one parent ordered to pay $27,000 and a 17-year-old student fined more than $12,000.

The suit against the Lebanon School District, filed Thursday in Harrisburg by the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia on behalf of four parents and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, targets the court-imposed fines it says were above the state's limit of $300 per violation.

The suit seeks a class-action declaration and the return of any illegal money that the south-central Pennsylvania district collected. It also asks the court to stop the district from trying to collect any fines that violate state law and remain unpaid.

Superintendent Marianne Bartley has denied any wrongdoing by the district and referred calls Thursday to a lawyer. The lawyer, Rebecca Young, said that some of the law center's information in its public statements is inaccurate, but that she had not seen a copy of the lawsuit and could not comment on it.

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from opponents of same-sex marriage who want to overturn the District of Columbia's gay marriage law.

The court did not comment Tuesday in turning away a challenge from a Maryland pastor and others who are trying to get a measure on the ballot to allow Washingtonians to vote on a measure that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Bishop Harry Jackson led a lawsuit against the district's Board of Elections and Ethics after it refused to put that initiative on the ballot. The board ruled that the ballot question would in effect authorize discrimination.

Last year, Washington began issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples and in 2009, it began recognizing gay marriages performed elsewhere.

Judges of a top Italian court began deliberating Thursday on whether to uphold a law shielding Premier Silvio Berlusconi from two trials in Milan.

The Constitutional Court must decide if the legislation complies with the constitution, including the principle that all are equal under the law. It is expected to issue its ruling later Thursday.

If the court rejects the law, Berlusconi's two trials, on corruption and tax fraud charges respectively, will resume.

Berlusconi insisted this week that his government's stability will not be affected by the decision, and that he is "totally indifferent as to whether the trials are suspended or not." He called the trials "ridiculous."

But any decision will be fraught with political repercussions, and a rejection would deal a blow to a premier already weakened by sex scandals, a fight with an ex-ally and a shaky parliamentary majority.

The legislation suspends court proceedings for up to 18 months if the defendant has a "legitimate impediment" stemming from being premier or a member of government.

The law drew accusations that it was tailor-made for the premier, but Berlusconi's lawyer told the Constitutional Court in a hearing this week that the legislation is necessary to safeguard the right to a fair defense and that the Italian criminal code already envisages cases of legitimate impediment, such as grave sickness.

A New Jersey Supreme Court justice who refused to participate in all decisions while a temporary judge is assigned to the bench has tempered his protest.

Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto said in an opinion published Wednesday that he will issue decisions in cases in which Judge Edwin Stern participates, so long as the judge's vote doesn't affect the outcome.

Rivera-Soto said he'll continue to defer a decision to vote in cases where Stern's position changes the outcome.

Rivera-Soto maintains it's unconstitutional to have a temporary justice on the court when a quorum of five is present. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner appointed Stern to fill a vacancy that occurred when Gov. Chris Christie did not reappoint Justice John Wallace in May, leaving the seven-member court one member short.

Democrats who control the state Senate have refused to consider Christie's choice to replace Wallace, corporate lawyer Anne Patterson.

Rivera-Soto recently announced his plans to step down rather than seek renomination when his term expires in September. It was doubtful that the justice, who was reprimanded by the court in 2007 for intervening in a conflict between his son and another student at Haddonfield Memorial High School, would have been renominated.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who has been among Rivera-Soto's harshest critics, said Wednesday that the justice is unfit to serve.

A federal appeals court in Chicago has denied imprisoned former Illinois Gov. George Ryan's request to be freed on bail so he can spend more time with his terminally ill wife.

The court on Monday rejected the emergency motion filed by Ryan's attorneys last week after Lura Lynn Ryan was taken to intensive care suffering complications from chemotherapy.

Prison authorities did escort the 76-year-old to see his wife for two hours the same day she was admitted to the hospital. Prosecutors cited that clandestine visit as one reason judges shouldn't grant Ryan's release.

Former Gov. James Thompson, a Ryan attorney, says the defense now will ask Democratic President Barack Obama to commute Ryan's sentence from 6 1/2 years to the three years the Republican's already served for his 2006 corruption conviction.