Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to limit on lawsuits against military

The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up a challenge of the far- reaching limits on lawsuits against the military.

Soldiers and their families cannot sue over such things as war injuries and training accidents and, under the Supreme Court's 1950 interpretation of the ban, the government has virtually total immunity when a service member dies or is injured.

Monday's case involved the death of two off-duty Navy officers while on a recreational outing. The families of the two officers contend that the Navy, which organized the rafting trip, was negligent.

Because the two were active duty officers when they were killed on the military-sponsored trip, under the 1950 decision their families cannot sue, an appeals court said.

The court also dealt another loss to Terry Nichols, refusing to block a trial that could bring him the death penalty for the 1995 bombing of the Alfred Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City.

Nichols has already been convicted on federal charges for his role in the bombing that killed 168 people. At issue now is the state's effort to try him on more charges.

Justices, without comment, turned back his claims that another trial would be double jeopardy.