Justices Back Worker In Retaliation Case

The decision was among several 9 to 0 decisions the court issued yesterday. In fact, more than half of the court's decisions in cases heard so far this term have come without dissent.

Among yesterday's decisions:

· The court said supervising prosecutors are protected from civil lawsuits, just as prosecutors who actually try the case are. The case involved a man who was wrongly convicted and spent 24 years in jail and wanted to sue former Los Angeles district attorney John Van de Kamp for depending on an unreliable jailhouse snitch to build his case.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the court in Van de Kamp v. Goldstein, noted that "sometimes such immunity deprives a plaintiff of compensation that he undoubtedly merits" but said that was outweighed by "the impediments to the fair, efficient functioning of a prosecutorial office that liability could create."

· Justices ruled in favor of Bethesda-based USEC, which runs the country's only uranium-enrichment factory, and upheld anti-dumping duties imposed by the Bush administration on enriched uranium imported from France. The case is United States v. Eurodif.

In other action, the court took a case from Maryland to decide how long police must abide by a suspect's request for a lawyer before questioning him.

The state asked the court to review the Maryland Court of Appeals' decision to throw out the confession of child molester Michael Shatzer.

Shatzer, already imprisoned for child sexual abuse, requested an attorney when authorities began investigating another case against him in 2003. The investigation was dropped for nearly three years, when Shatzer waived his rights and confessed, police said.

But the Maryland high court ruled the confession could not be admitted because of Shatzer's earlier request for a lawyer.

The case is Maryland v. Shatzer.