Seemingly divided, the U.S. Supreme Court struggled yesterday with the question of whether for-profit companies have religious rights, a case challenging President Barack Obama's health overhaul and its guarantee of birth control in employees' preventive care plans. The Hobby Lobby chain of stores and others challenging the provision provide health insurance to their employees, but object to covering certain methods of birth control that they say can work after conception, in violation of their religious beliefs. The justices peppered attorneys with questions during a 90-minute argument. The outcome could turn on the views of Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the decisive vote, as his colleagues appeared otherwise to divide along liberal and conservative lines. A decision is expected by late June. The Chattanoga Times Free Press has more.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that people convicted of minor domestic violence offenses can be barred from possessing guns even in states where no proof of physical violence is required to support the domestic violence charge. The justices unanimously rejected the argument put forth by gun rights groups and a Tennessee man who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic assault against the mother of his child in 2001, the Johnson City Press reports.

The Affordable Care Act will be considered in the Supreme Court next week in a case full of hot-button issues: religious freedom, corporate rights, federal regulation, abortion and contraception. On one side is the Obama administration, insistent that health policies written under the act include full coverage for all methods of birth control. On the other side are two family-owned corporations — the Hobby Lobby chain of arts-and-crafts stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., a Mennonite-owned cabinet maker. They cite religious objections to intrauterine devices (IUDs) and "morning-after" pills, which they say can cause abortions. WBIR has the story from USA Today.

Court-watchers are renewing a debate over whether U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who recently turned 81, ought to retire so that President Barack Obama could pick her successor while Democrats still control the chamber, Gavel Grab reports. With control of the U.S. Senate increasingly seen as up for grabs in the midterm elections this year, many news sources have chimed in the debate, including The Economist, Slate, The Atlantic, The Washington Post and Bloomberg View.

Roane County resident Lakesia Morrison was asked to contribute to Plumhoff v. Richard after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Morrison is a law clerk at the Arkansas Municipal League and a University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law student. Municipal League Attorney Michael Mosley said her help in the case has been instrumental in crafting arguments and helping him prepare for oral argument, Knoxnews reports.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from a German family seeking asylum in the United States because their home country does not allow home-schooling, the Times News reports. The justices rejected an appeal from the Romeikes, who are residents of Morristown, Tenn. The couple had agued that the German government is persecuting them because they want to raise their children in accordance with their Christian beliefs. Last year, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected their claim as well based on the theory that U.S. law does not grant asylum to every victim of unfair treatment.

A former Pennsylvania coal town and a Dallas suburb lost a lengthy battle to enact anti-immigrant laws Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear their appeals, the Associated Press reports. The high court has held since 2012 that immigration issues are largely a matter for federal agencies, not local governments, to regulate. The ruling Monday involved efforts by the city of Hazleton, in northeastern Pennsylvania, and Farmers Branch, Texas, to enforce housing and employment rules aimed at people in the country illegally, a strategy copied by dozens of other cities that faulted federal efforts to control immigration. WRCB-TV has the story.

The protest group 99Rise has posted what appears to be the first video of the Supreme Court taken inside the courtroom with the court in session, WRCB reports. The Supreme Court forbids cameras and all other electronic devices, but members of 99Rise appear to have shot video on two separate occasions since October. A court spokeswoman said the court is reviewing the video and courtroom screening procedures.

The U.S Supreme Court ruled yesterday that police may search a home without a warrant when two occupants disagree about allowing officers to enter if the objecting resident is not present. The court had ruled in 2006 that when the occupants in disagreement are both present, the objecting occupant prevails. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the court's 6-3 decision, WRCBTV reports.

The U.S. Supreme Court next week will hear arguments in a wrongful death suit over a West Memphis, Ark., traffic stop that led to a chase into Memphis, where police gunfire killed an unarmed driver and his girlfriend, the Commercial Appeal reports. On March 4, attorneys representing the city of West Memphis and six officers will try to convince the nation’s highest court that the pursuing officers are shielded from prosecution. Shelby County prosecutors previously charged three of the officers with reckless homicide, but in 2008 they were given two years of diversion, which they completed. All six officers were then sued in the civil action. The U.S. District Court in Memphis and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled that the officers are not shielded by qualified immunity.