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The U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-2 ruling on Thursday said a 1986 global asbestos settlement shields The Travelers Cos. Inc. (TRV) from new asbestos claims relating to Johns-Manville Corp.

Justice David Souter, in the court's majority, said an injunction and federal bankruptcy court orders barring additional asbestos claims "generally stands in the way of challenging the enforceability of the injunction."

The opinion is a win for Travelers Cos., which in lower courts was potentially exposed to new asbestos lawsuits. The high court's decision clears the way for a $500 million settlement Travelers has already agreed to covering the recent round of Johns-Manville related asbestos claims.

Travelers was exposed to asbestos lawsuits through its insurance policies with Johns-Manville.

The insurer had asked the high court to overturn a ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that had potentially exposed it to a new set of lawsuits filed in several states in 2002.

Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented.

The case is Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Bailey, 08-295.

In other Supreme Court action:

- The high court said federal prosecutors are limited in bringing a second round of criminal charges against a former executive at Enron Corp.'s (ENE) broadband unit.

In a 6-3 majority opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens, the court said the government may not be able to bring new charges against Scott Yeager, a former vice president at Enron Broadband Services, which was a unit of Enron.

"The fact that petitioner has already survived one trial should be a factor in cutting in favor of, rather than against, applying a double-jeopardy bar," Stevens said. Double jeopardy refers to a clause in the U.S. Constitution that generally bars repeated prosecutions of criminal defendants.

A federal grand jury in 2005 returned additional charges against Yeager after he was acquitted in an earlier trial. The earlier jury had acquitted him on fraud charges but failed to reach a verdict on insider trading charges.

A U.S. District Court and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans both determined Yeager could be retried for charges where the earlier jury had failed to reach a conclusion.

Joining the majority were Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Justices Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito dissented. Justice Anthony Kennedy joined part of the majority's opinion.

The case is Yeager v. U.S., 08-67. The high court sent the matter back to lower courts and left the door open for some facts in the case to be reviewed again.

- The court also ruled 5-4 that employees bringing federal age discrimination claims bear the burden of proving their age was a primary factor against in their reassignment by an employer. "The burden of persuasion does not shift to the employer to show that it would have taken the action regardless of age," Thomas wrote in the majority opinion. He added this legal rule applies "even when a plaintiff has produced some evidence that age was one motivating factor."

The case involves a lawsuit brought against FBL Financial Group Inc. (FFG) by Jack Gross, who at age 54 was moved from a director to a coordinator position. In 2004 Gross sued under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which bars age discrimination in the workplace. FBL Financial maintained the reassigment was part of a restructuring. A federal jury had ruled in favor of Gross and awarded him $46,945 in compensation.

The case is Gross v. FBL Financial Services Inc., 08-441.

-By Mark H. Anderson, Dow Jones Newswires, 202 862-9254; mark.anderson@dowjones.com