The ruling, requested by Samuel R. Pierce Jr., the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, resolves a two-year dispute between his agency and the Labor Department.

But the ruling, which was issued without an opinion, has no value as a precedent outside of Florida and does not resolve the constitutional issues raised by Ford's lawsuit.

The 5-to-4 ruling resolved conflicting interpretations in the lower courts over the scope of the law, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

The 2-to-1 ruling reinstated, but did not resolve, a lawsuit that has yet to go to trial.

Today's ruling resolves any lingering doubt that Hong Kong's British-style legal system is firmly subordinate to the Chinese system.

A California judge has upheld the Bank of America's requirement that customers settle complaints through arbitration rather than the courts, a ruling with broad implications for the way banks resolve disputes with depositors.

But the ruling, by Judge Ricardo Ojeda Bohorquez, did not resolve troubling doubts about the weak and tainted case on which it was based.

Previous rulings, including Ellis and Lehnert, had not resolved this question.

The ruling resolved a long-standing border dispute between the two states, which had nearly erupted in military clashes during the so-called "Honey War" of 1839.

The ruling resolved what had been a monthlong dispute between the group's organizers and the city, which had repeatedly argued that the march would tie up traffic.