Supreme Court: Career-criminal law clarified

The latest: The Supreme Court unanimously upheld a stiff prison term Tuesday for a repeat Wisconsin offender who argued that some earlier convictions should not count in calculating his sentence. The ruling in the case of James Logan is the latest effort by the court to clarify the Armed Career Criminal Act, most recently amended in 2004. The law allows longer sentences for "career criminals."

The tactic: Logan pleaded guilty to possessing a gun after having been convicted of a felony. Federal law bars felons from having guns. He received a 15-year sentence because he also had three prior convictions.

Logan argued that the misdemeanors should not have been considered because the law also says those convictions shouldn't count when an individual has his civil rights, which normally includes the right to vote, restored. In Wisconsin, misdemeanors do not result in the loss of civil rights, so Logan said the convictions shouldn't be counted.

The upshot: The court was not convinced. "We hold that the words 'civil rights restored' do not cover the case of an offender who lost no civil rights," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said.

Opening arguments: Medtronic Inc. argued before the justices that federally approved medical devices should be largely immune from lawsuits seeking damages for injuries. D1

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