Free-speech, business cases await new US Supreme Court justice

Violent video games, protests at funerals of US military personnel, a Swiss watch copyright dispute, and vaccine-maker liability are among the cases that solicitor general Elena Kagan would confront if approved for the US Supreme Court.

President Barack Obama nominated Kagan on Monday to replace outgoing liberal justice John Paul Stevens.

The retirement of the 90-year-old Stevens will take effect at the end of the current court term in late June.

For its upcoming term, the court has agreed to decide a number of major cases. They include:

Violent video games: Whether a California law banning the sale and rental of violent video games to minors violates constitutional free-speech rights. It will mark the first time the country's highest court will hear and decide a case involving government regulation of video games.

The Supreme Court will consider whether violent material in video games should be subject to the same legal standard the courts have used to prohibit the sale of sexually explicit material to minors.

Anti-homosexual protests at military funerals: Whether constitutional free-speech rights protected anti-homosexual protests by members of a Kansas church at funerals for US military personnel killed in Iraq.

The protesters argued their message and picketing were constitutionally protected, even though it involved a private family funeral.

The church members have picketed at funerals of US military personnel killed in Iraq or Afghanistan as part of their religious view that God is punishing America for its tolerance of homosexuals.

Copyright infringement: A copyright infringement dispute between Costco Wholesale Corp, the top US warehouse club operator, and a Swatch Group unit over imported Swiss-made watches.

Costco obtained the watches through a series of transactions. Swatch Group's Omega unit first sold the watches to authorised distributors overseas. Unidentified third parties bought the watches and sold them to a New York company, which in turn sold them to Costco.

The case has important implications for discount sellers like Costco and other companies that form the annual market estimated at more than $50 billion for goods that are purchased abroad, then imported and resold without the permission of the manufacturer.

Background checks for NASA employees: Whether NASA background investigations, required of scientists, engineers, and all other employees at its jet propulsion laboratory in California violate their privacy rights.

All positions at the laboratory, owned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and operated by the California Institute of Technology, are filled by contract employees. Employees who do not agree to the checks could lose their jobs.

The ruling could affect the background investigation process used by the federal government for more than 50 years.

Lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers: Whether a federal law protects vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits in state courts seeking to hold them liable for damages.

The case involves a lawsuit by the parents of a child who suffered seizures after her third dose of a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, or DTP, vaccine. They sued the manufacturer for alleged design defects in the vaccine.

The ruling could affect about 5,000 federal claims alleging a link between childhood vaccines and neurological damage like autism, and whether those claimants can also seek damages under state law.