Washington, DC -- The Supreme Court dealt a loss Monday to imprisoned assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian.

His case was among more than a thousand that justices refused to consider as they returned to work after a three-month break. The court only hears arguments in 80 or so cases each year - about 1 percent of the cases that make it to the high court.

Kevorkian has unsuccessfully tried before to get the court involved in the issue of assisted suicide. He is serving a 10- to 25-year prison sentence for the injection death of a man with Lou Gehrig's disease.

The 1998 death of Thomas Youk was videotaped and shown on national television. Kevorkian has called it a ``mercy killing,'' but a jury in Michigan convicted him of second-degree murder.

The cases is Kevorkian v. People of the state of Michigan, 02-48.