The federal government has opposed business interests in two closely watched securities cases during Elena Kagan's time as solicitor general, although her brief tenure has overlapped with just a handful of notable business cases.

Ms. Kagan has a light record on business issues outside of her 14 months of service as solicitor general, a role in which she represented the government at the high court. She hasn't served as a judge and her professional career has largely been devoted to government service and academia.

With Ms. Kagan as solicitor general, the Obama administration has taken a friendlier approach to investor lawsuits. Ms. Kagan's office filed a legal brief supporting investors in a case that examined when shareholders could sue mutual-fund managers for allegedly charging excessive fees. Ms. Kagan argued that a lower-court ruling in the case did not provide enough of a check on potentially excessive fees.

In another case, Ms. Kagan's office argued that shareholders of Merck & Co. Inc. didn't wait too long to file lawsuits alleging the drug maker misrepresented the safety of painkiller drug Vioxx.

The Supreme Court, which decided both cases this spring, unanimously agreed with Ms. Kagan's position each time.

Two American women charged in a global terrorism plot allegedly aimed at killing a Swedish artist are due in court in Philadelphia.

Court papers show the case is largely built on e-mails and online postings allegedly made by 46-year-old Colleen LaRose of Pennsburg and 31-year-old Jamie Paulin-Ramirez of Leadville, Colo.

The Colorado woman's defense lawyer, Jeremy Ibrahim, says he will ask Monday for copies of computer evidence. A judge may have to screen it first because prosecutors say some of it may be classified.

LaRose is also expected to enter a plea to a superseding indictment. Both women have previously pleaded not guilty. They were arrested this year after returning from Europe.

The Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a British woman on death row in Texas for killing a young mother.

The justices on Monday rejected an appeal from Linda Carty, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing a woman whose child she also snatched in Houston in 2001. Carty has complained that her trial lawyers were deficient.

The British government and human rights groups have aided Carty's cause.

Carty is one of 10 condemned women in Texas. She is a former teacher from St. Kitts in the British Virgin Islands.

In September, a taped voice recording of Carty begging Britons to help save her life was broadcast into London's Trafalgar Square.

The Florida attorney general's office is investigating possible misconduct by a large law firm that files foreclosures for banks, according to a posting on its Web site.

The Web site said the office is looking at whether Florida Default Law Group, based in Tampa, was involved in "fabricating and/or presenting false and misleading documents in foreclosure cases." Mortgage documents that are used to prove a bank has a right to foreclose "have later been shown to be legally inadequate and/or insufficient," the Web site said.

A spokeswoman for Florida Default declined to comment. Ryan Wiggins, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Bill McCollum, said the investigation began last fall.

The civil probe comes as some judges and federal prosecutors in Florida are paying close attention to how banks—and so-called foreclosure-mill law firms that work for banks—are attempting to take control of homes from borrowers in default. Judges across the country have chastised banks and their attorneys for attempting to seize properties they can't prove they own.

Last month, a Florida judge said that a mortgage document filed by a bank in a foreclosure case was part of an "intentional effort to mislead" the court.

When President George W. Bush and his lawyers were insisting the commander in chief had the sole power to run the new "war on terror," Judge Diane Wood sharply criticized that view.

Wood, now on President Obama's list as a possible Supreme Court nominee, wrote in a 2003 Chicago law review article that "in a democracy, those responsible for national security must do more than say ‘trust us, we know best.' " Secret prisons and secret evidence do not comport with the rule of law, she said.

When the Bush administration argued that a Chinese Muslim could be held indefinitely as a Guantanamo Bay prisoner because he had gone to Afghanistan and may have "associated" with the Taliban, Judge Merrick Garland disagreed.

Garland, also on Obama's short list for the Supreme Court, wrote two years ago for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington that "Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact that the government has ‘said it thrice' does not make the allegation true." There was no evidence that the Uighurs were "enemy combatants," he said.

A U.S. senator urged the State Department on Monday to deny entry to the United States for all Russian officials allegedly responsible for the prison death of a lawyer.

Sergey Magnitsky died in November after spending almost a year in jail. He was awaiting trial on tax-evasion charges linked to his work with a British investor barred from Russia because of allegations he was a security risk.

Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., released a letter he wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asking her to deny entry to the United States of several senior officials from the Russian Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Federal Tax Service.

Magnitsky's colleagues and attorney believe the public officials listed by Cardin were involved in the lawyer's death.

"We can take the concrete action to ensure those public officials and others who share responsibility for this crime should be denied entry visas to the United States," Cardin wrote. "Since the death, a number of prison officials have been fired, but no one has been prosecuted for his torture or death, nor for participating in the corruption he exposed."

With tragedy comes an outpouring of support but an area law firm's way of helping is raising some eyebrows.

Underwood Law Firm wasted no time putting ads in local newspapers a week after the deadly blast killed 29 miners at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County.

Attorney Mark Underwood says he stands by his decision; especially because he says benefit packages are often difficult to understand.

"I think it was perfect timing in light of the fact that Massey came out with a benefits package the very next day," Underwood said.

Underwood said his grandfather was killed in an industrial accident years ago. His family understands what happens following the funeral with emotions running high, and the daunting task of legal paperwork.

"The family members that would be considering those benefit packages need to seek some sort of legal counsel whether it's our firm, another firm, a friend or a neighbor that's a lawyer," Underwood said. "They need to go and sit down and talk to a lawyer before they agree to anything with Massey."

But how soon, is too soon? It's a question many people started asking as ads popped up before all the funerals had even been finished.