Slapping a teenager or taking money from her paycheck to pay family bills is hardly admirable, but doesn't constitute child neglect or abuse, the state Supreme Court ruled today.

In a 7-0 decision, the court found the state Division of Youth and Family Services lacked sufficient evidence to remove a teenager from her father and stepmother's home in 2008, and dropped the abuse and neglect judgment against her stepmother.

"The parental decisions made within this family unit may not have been exemplars of stellar parenting, but they did not rise to the level of Title Nine violations," wrote Justice Jaynee LaVecchia, referring to New Jersey's child abuse laws.

The girl was removed from the home after her grandfather reported the parents for taking her earnings from her part-time job and "slapping her around." A DYFS worker also found the home was without heat and authorized an emergency removal.

The father told a DYFS representative that his wife had slapped his daughter once two years earlier, and that part of his daughter's earnings went to the cable bill. The couple said their central heating was broken, and they were using space heaters. The family members were not named the decision.

The Illinois Supreme Court has refused to review a lower court decision in favor of Chicago's acquisition of a cemetery that's in the path of a planned runway in the $15 billion O'Hare International Airport Modernization Program.

Spokesman Joseph Tybor says the court's decision means the appellate court decision stands.

Earlier this month, Chicago Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino said the city planned to resume unearthing bodies at the cemetery as soon as the Supreme Court made a decision in its favor.

Plans call for the 900 buried at St. Johannes Cemetery in Bensenville to be relocated.

Attorney Joseph Karaganis, who represents cemetery owner St. John's United Church of Christ, says Wednesday's decision is technically "not the end of the line" for the issue, but is pretty close to it.

The moment lasted about 20 seconds. But its political reverberations have endured for a year and exemplify today's knotty confluence of law, politics and public perception.

At last year's State of the Union speech Jan. 27, with six Supreme Court justices in attendance, President Obama denounced a recent campaign-finance ruling, saying it reversed a century of precedent and warning that it would "open the floodgates" for corporate spending on elections. Justice Samuel Alito shook his head and mouthed "not true."

That tense moment has been viewed on youtube.com more than 650,000 times in the past year. It was singularly controversial but not the only headline-grabbing interaction between members of the political branches and the Supreme Court in the past twelve months.

A series of events, most recently Justice Antonin Scalia's acceptance of an invitation to speak to Tea Party members, has made clear that against the backdrop of an increasingly polarized Washington and the 24-hour media frenzy, interactions between justices and the two elected branches have become more politicized.

A prominent lawyer for Boston-area clergy sex abuse victims on Wednesday released a new list of accused abusers, saying it was time to "end the secrecy."

The list includes previously undisclosed names of 19 Catholic priests, brothers and one deacon who attorney Mitchell Garabedian said were among those accused in the scores of cases his firm settled with the church for "tens of millions" of dollars.

None of the newly disclosed people on the list have been tried or convicted of a crime, and at least 16 of the 19 are dead, including all who were priests of the Boston Archdiocese.

Garabedian said he released the names to protect the public, help victims heal and end what he says is a culture of secrecy in the church that enabled abusers to get away with their crimes for years.

Garabedian said he grew tired of waiting for Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley to release a similar list.

"We've been waiting for O'Malley to come forward," he said. "I thought it was his obligation to come forward, and we gave him time to come forward. ... It's time to end the secrecy."

The list included 117 names of those accused in cases settled by Garabedian's firm in roughly the last 15 years.

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Arizona death row inmate Daniel Wayne Cook, convicted of strangling two men in 1987.

The justices did not comment on their order Tuesday. Cook says his death sentence should be reversed because he has post-traumatic stress disorder and organic brain damage.

Separately, he is challenging the state's use of a sedative drug in executions. Arizona has acknowledged buying the sedative from a company in Great Britain because of a shortage of the drug in the United States. The state has refused to disclose the company manufacturing it.

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a stay of execution for a convicted killer in Alabama.

Justice Clarence Thomas had issued a temporary stay shortly before the execution of Leroy White was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday.

A temporary stay gives the court additional time to consider legal arguments in the case. About two-and-a-half hours later the stay was denied.

White was sentenced to die for the 1988 shotgun slaying of his estranged wife, Ruby. White fired while holding their 17-month-old daughter in his arms.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, the Alabama Supreme Court and a federal judge in Alabama declined to intervene in the execution earlier Thursday.