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The U.S. Supreme Court Monday said it will decide whether New York can sue online cigarette sellers for not paying city taxes on tobacco products shipped to purchasers living there.

New York has the highest cigarette excise taxes in the country at $4.25 a pack, counting both state and city excise taxes. It sued several online tobacco sellers in 2003, claiming they were violating federal racketeering laws and seeking millions of dollars in excise taxes it says the companies must pay to ship tobacco products into the city.

Several of the lawsuits were consolidated into one legal proceeding. Following adverse rulings in trial court, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in 2008 revived the racketeering charges in a 2-1 ruling that said New York could sue under federal racketeering statutes. Hemi Group LLC, a New Mexico-based business, and an individual named in one of the lawsuits appealed the Second Circuit ruling to the Supreme Court.

The high court will hear the case in the fall of 2009. The case is Hemi Group v. New York.

In other Supreme Court action:

-The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that Shell Oil Co., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA), isn't liable for Superfund environmental cleanup costs as the maker of pesticide chemicals that were spilled at a storage and distribution facility in Arvin, Calif. The opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens separately said that Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI), which leased land to the distributor, is liable for a portion of the cleanup costs.

The federal Superfund law governs remediation of environmental damages from industrial pollution. The high court's ruling in this case came after the federal government, Shell Oil and Burlington Northern disagreed over who would pay what portions of the cleanup costs after the original chemical distributor went out of business. Overall cleanup costs involved in the case have exceeded $10 million. The Supreme Court ruling said Burlington Northern's 9% share of the costs, as ordered by a federal trial court, was appropriate but that Shell did not have to pay.

The cases are Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. v. U.S., 07-1601, and Shell Oil Co. v. U.S., 07-1607.

-The justices asked a lower court to again review a ruling that rejected a $550,000 Federal Communications Commission fine against CBS Corp. (CBS) over its live broadcast of Janet Jackson's breast-baring during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. The Supreme Court last week in a separate case ruled 5-4 that the FCC's rules on indecency over the airwaves aren't "arbitrary nor capricious."

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia had thrown out the fine after ruling the FCC's rules were arbitrary. The case is FCC v. CBS Corp., 08-653.

-By Mark H. Anderson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9254