Court: US needn't test income shift on oil leases

Sandra Day O'Connor, delivering her first written decision Tuesday as Supreme Court Justice, upheld Interior Secretary James G. Watt in a dispute over offshore oil and gas leases, reports Monitor correspondent Julia Malone. The unanimous decision overturned a ruling that the department must experiment with new leasing systems to increase competition.

The high court also ruled the Pentagon did not have to prepare environmental-impact statements before building nuclear weapons storage facilities.