High court to rule on terror cases

       Hot-button issues including gun rights and counterterrorism will be on the docket when the US Supreme Court, including newest member Sonia Sotomayor, begins a new term today.
       The nation's highest court, whose decisions deeply affect US policy, will also go to work amid growing speculation over the possible departure of a judge.
       The nine justices have agreed to examine 55 cases this term. They will soon decide whether to add to that roster an appeal brought by Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release and want to resettle in the US.
       Another sensitive case likely to be taken up by the court is President Barack Obama's request to block the release of photos showing detainee abuse at the hands of US personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite a court order demanding the images be made public.
       The justices have already agreed to take on a case that involves defining the parameters of the term "material support to terrorism", a charge that has been levelled in recent years in dozens of cases to obtain some 60 convictions. It has become an important tool for prosecutors because it is such a broad term.
       But its use is being contested by a rights group on behalf of an organisation that has worked on closely with members of the Kurdistan Workers Party and the Tamil Tigers.
       Whatever decision the court makes,it will affect dozens of detainees at Guantanamo who have had the charge levelled against them.
       On gun rights, the court will hear a case asking it to specify whether its June 2008 ruling confirming Americans' rights to bear firearms, at home and for self defence, applies even where local and state governments ban weapons.
       The justices will also decide whether minors can be sentenced to life in prison without parole for crimes other than murder. About 100 prisoners face this situation in the US.
       The court also will be asked to decide whether the immunity of former Somali prime minister Mohammed Ali Samatar can be lifted to allow him to be pursued for alleged torture and murders committed in the 1980s.