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.

Dennis Jerome Foust of Montague faces trial in Oceana County Circuit Court on two counts of felonious assault and a misdemeanor count of domestic violence. The 33-year-old also is charged as a habitual offender, which could result in a longer prison sentence if he is convicted.

Police say Foust and his wife fought Jan. 9 during the wake for Shawn Davila, who died on New Year's Day from methanol alcohol poisoning.

Two men were stabbed after intervening in the fight. They were treated and released.

In ruling unanimously for five officers attached to the Central Utah Narcotics Task Force, the court also abandoned a rigid, two-step test that it adopted in 2001 to guide judges in assessing alleged violations of constitutional rights.

Trial and appellate judges "should be permitted to exercise their sound discretion" in evaluating such claims, Justice Samuel Alito said in his opinion for the court.

Under the 2001 ruling, courts first had to determine whether an action amounts to a violation of a constitutional right and then decide whether the public official, often a police officer, should be immune from the civil lawsuit.

Officials can't be held liable in situations where it is not clearly established that their actions violated someone's constitutional rights.

The case grew out of a search of the home of Afton Callahan of Millard County, Utah, in 2002.

An informant contacted police to tell them he had arranged to purchase drugs from Callahan at Callahan's trailer home.