WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court issued three 5-to-4 decisions on Monday. One limited a criminal suspect’s right to remain silent before being taken into custody. Another granted additional discretion to judges in sentencing. The third allowed a lawsuit against trial lawyers who had solicited clients using information from motor vehicle departments to move forward. The justices also agreed to hear a case on fair-housing laws.

RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT The court ruled that a suspect’s failure to answer a police officer’s questions before an arrest may be used against the suspect at trial.

The Supreme Court has long said the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination applies after arrest and at trial. But it had never decided, in the words of a 1980 decision, “whether or under what circumstances pre-arrest silence” in the face of questioning by law enforcement personnel is entitled to protection.

The case decided Monday, Salinas v. Texas, No. 12-246, arose from the 1992 murder of two brothers, Juan and Hector Garza, in Houston. Among the evidence the police found were discarded shotgun shells.