Lawyers for Robert Jaffe had argued that Secretary of State William Galvin's attorneys did not have the authority to require Jaffe to testify.

Superior Court Judge Stephen Neel on Monday ruled that Jaffe must comply with the subpoena by Feb. 6.

Galvin says Jaffe brought Massachusetts investors to Madoff and that those clients lost millions of dollars when his alleged $50 billion scheme collapsed.

Jaffe has said he had no knowledge of Madoff's actions and he was also a victim. His attorney, Stanley Arkin, said he was considering an appeal.

"We are going to evaluate today's ruling and are considering an appeal in this very important issue of fundamental law," said Jaffe spokesman Elliot Sloane.

Galvin said he's eager to move ahead with the investigation of Madoff's actions in Massachusetts. He said residents who lost money identified Jaffe as a conduit to Madoff.

"(Jaffe) has claimed he's a victim. If he's a victim he needs to tell us about it," Galvin said. "We know he was the person who brought investors to Mr. Madoff."

The justices held that a longtime school system employee in Tennessee can pursue a civil rights lawsuit over her firing.

The court voted to reverse the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not apply to employees who merely cooperate with an internal probe rather than complain on their own or take part in a formal investigation.

The Cincinnati-based court was alone among federal appeals courts in its narrow view of the civil rights law, which was already understood to bar retaliation against people who complained about harassment and other discrimination.

"The question here is whether this protection extends to an employee who speaks out about discrimination not on her own initiative, but in answering questions during an employer's internal investigation. We hold that it does," Justice David Souter said for the court.

Vicky Crawford was fired in 2003 after more than 30 years as an employee of the school system for Nashville, Tenn., and Davidson County.

The justices, in a unanimous decision Monday, said Kari Kennedy can collect nothing from DuPont because companies are bound by what a worker puts down on forms designating who is to receive retirement and other benefits after his death.

In this case, William Kennedy divorced his wife of 22 years and she waived her rights to the retirement money in their divorce decree. Kari Kennedy said her father wanted her to have the money after his death.

But Kennedy never changed his beneficiary on the retirement account, and DuPont properly paid $402,000 to Liv Kennedy, his ex-wife, Justice David Souter said.

The case is Kennedy v. Plan Administrator, 07-636.

U.S. authorities say the men were part of a secret mission to help militants locked in the bloody civil war in their homeland by buying and smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of surface-to-air missiles. According to court papers, the men also wanted guns — but not just any guns.

"We need AK-47s, but only if you have Russian-made or American-made," prosecutors allege one defendant said during a meeting with an undercover agent posing as a crooked arms dealer. "Not the Chinese."

The videotaped sting is central to an unusual case against four alleged agents of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or "Tamil Tigers" — a Sri Lankan rebel force the State Department calls a terrorist organization.