A Kentucky-based chemical company cannot prove that its investment broker knew in advance that a securities market would collapse in early 2008, leaving the company with $194 million in investments that couldn't easily be sold, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Ashland Inc. couldn't show that New York-based Oppenheimer & Co. lured the company into continuing to buy auction rate securities while hiding knowledge about an impending market implosion.

"At best, the alleged facts suggests that a few Oppenheimer employees were aware of what might happen if the underwriters left the ARS market, a seemingly remote risk, given its past stability," Judge Deborah Cook wrote for the unanimous panel.

The decision upholds a ruling in 2010 by U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman rejecting Ashland's claims. Ashland sued Oppenheimer in 2009, accusing the brokerage firm of providing intentionally misleading information about the market for student loan-backed auction rate securities up until the market went under in February 2008.

Auction rate securities are long-term bonds with interest rates periodically reset through recurring auctions, which are commonly held between on a schedule ranging from seven to 35 days. Investors can sell their securities at each auction, provided buyers outnumber sellers. If there are more sellers than buyers, an auction fails, potentially leaving sellers holding the securities.

A conservative law firm asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to strike down the health care overhaul, challenging the first federal appeals court ruling that upheld President Barack Obama's signature domestic initiative.

The appeal filed by the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Mich., said Congress overstepped its authority in requiring Americans to purchase health insurance or pay financial penalties.

The center said that if the Supreme Court ratifies the law, "the federal government will have absolute and unfettered power to create complex regulatory schemes to fix every perceived problem imaginable and to do so by ordering private citizens to engage in affirmative acts, under penalty of law."

Last month, a divided three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati rejected the center's argument in upholding the centerpiece of the law, the insurance requirement.

In addition to being the first appeals court ruling on the landmark law, the 6th Circuit's decision also was the first in which a Republican-appointed judge, Jeffrey Sutton, voted to uphold the law. President George W. Bush nominated Sutton.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld the suspension of a West Virginia student who created a web page suggesting another student had a sexually transmitted disease and invited classmates to comment.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously refused to reinstate Kara Kowalski's lawsuit against school officials in Berkeley County. She claimed her five-day suspension from Musselman High School in 2005 violated her free speech and due process rights, and that school officials lacked authority to punish her because she created the web page at home.

The appeals court said the web page was created primarily for Kowalski's classmates, so the school had the right to discipline her for disrupting the learning environment.

Kowalski was a senior at Musselman when she created a MySpace page called "S.A.S.H." She claimed it was an acronym for "Students Against Sluts Herpes."

But a classmate said it stood for "Students Against Shay's Herpes" and referred to a student who was the main subject of discussion on the page. The first of about two dozen students who joined the discussion group posted photos of the student, including one with red dots drawn over her face to simulate herpes.

Other students posted messages commenting on the photos and ridiculing the student, whose parents complained to school officials the next day. Officials concluded Kowalski had created a "hate website" in violation of the school's anti-bullying policy.