Questioning the Supreme Court and other government branches needs to stay within the range of fair criticism or "run the risk in our society of undermining institutions that we need to preserve our liberties," Justice Clarence Thomas said Thursday.

Thomas also told an audience at the University of Florida law school that some comments he hears about the court "border on being irresponsible."

He didn't speak specifically about the court's recent decision on campaign financing or mention President Barack Obama. But Thomas' comments come a week after Obama took the rare step of openly criticizing the decision during his State of the Union speech.

Thomas supported the 5-4 ruling that allows companies and unions to spend freely on ads that promote or target candidates by name.

New York's top court has rejected Dan Rather's bid to reinstate his $70 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS Corp.

Rather's motion was denied without comment Tuesday by the Court of Appeals.

CBS spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs says the network is pleased with the outcome. A call to Rather's lawyer was not immediately returned.

Rather sued CBS and its top executives in 2007, claiming he had been wrongfully removed from his "CBS Evening News" anchor post over a report that examined President George W. Bush's military service.

In September, a five-member Appellate Division panel unanimously concluded there was no breach of contract because CBS still paid Rather his $6 million annual salary after the disputed 2004 broadcast.

In exchange, prosecutors agreed to dismiss six other charges during Tuesday's hearing.

The 52-year-old Becker pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault of a child under 16 and child enticement. He faces up to 45 years in prison when he's sentenced March 3.

Defense attorney Patrick Cafferty declined comment until after Becker's sentencing hearing.

Becker was arrested at a shopping center on Jan. 13 in a sting operation after authorities said he was involved in explicit Internet chats with a state agent posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Becker was charged Jan. 15 and resigned as mayor five days later.

After drug giant Pfizer Inc. announced that it was opening a new research center here, city officials aggressively moved to acquire surrounding land for an economic development project — triggering an epic fight over eminent domain that reached the U.S. Supreme Court and ended with residents being forced from their homes.

But the land where the homes once stood has remained undeveloped, and the community took another hit last week when Pfizer, a major economic engine in the city and its largest taxpayer, announced plans to close the $350 million research center and relocate about 1,500 jobs to nearby Groton.

Now some angry and befuddled current and former residents, including some who lost their homes, say the drug company's announcement reaffirms their conviction that the city never needed to pick the property rights fight in the first place. If they have lost, they say, then so apparently has the city.

"We just got so sick of hearing that we were supposed to sacrifice for the greater good," said Matthew Dery, the sales and retention manager at The Day newspaper in New London who relocated to Waterford after being forced out of a home that had been in his family for about a century. "As it turns out, there was no greater good."

Pfizer's pharmaceutical research center, which opened in 2001, was a catalyst for a planned multimillion-dollar private development that was to include residential, hotel conference, research and development space and a new state park. City officials decided they needed 90 acres adjacent to the Pfizer center to complement the building.