The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from residents of Puerto Rico seeking to gain a voting representative in Congress.

The high court turned away the appeal from Gregorio Igartua and other Puerto Ricans on Monday.

Territorial status grants residents of Puerto Rico U.S. citizenship, but they pay no federal income taxes and cannot vote in presidential elections. Their congressional representative also cannot vote in Congress.

A federal judge threw out the lawsuit, and the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision, saying that since Puerto Rico was not a state, it could not have a voting member of Congress.

The high court refused to hear the appeal.

The Supreme Court says a farming family has to pay tax on the bankruptcy sale of their farm.

The high court on Monday voted 5-4 for the IRS in its fight with Lynwood and Brenda Hall over their bankruptcy sale of their 320-acre farm in Willcox, Ariz.

The Halls were forced to sell their family farm for $960,000 to settle their bankruptcy debts. That sale brought about capital gains taxes of $26,000.The Halls wanted the taxes treated as part of the bankruptcy, paying part of it and having the court discharge the rest.

The IRS objected to that plan, saying all of the taxes must be paid and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed with the tax agency.

The high court agreed with that decision.

The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal over whether the family of a man allegedly killed by former Boston mob boss and FBI informant James "Whitey" Bulger should get millions of dollars from the government.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Edward Halloran's estate, which wants more than $2 million in damages from the FBI.

Bulger and another gang member are alleged to have shot Halloran on the waterfront in 1982. Bulger was an FBI informant at the time, and two judges ordered the FBI to pay damages to the families.

But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the families did not file their claims within the statute of limitations.