Dairy processors can make claims that their products are free of a synthetic growth hormone, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday in striking down parts of the state's rule on milk labeling.

Key parts of the state's labeling rule violated First Amendment rights to commercial free speech, a three-judge panel of 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled.

The Organic Trade Association and the International Dairy Foods Association sued the Ohio Department of Agriculture in 2008 over a state rule on how consumers are informed about whether milk is made from cows that were given a synthetic hormone.

The trade groups argued that the rule is too restrictive. It prohibits composition claims such as "antibiotic-free" and "pesticide-free," violating their free speech rights and impeding interstate commerce, the groups argued.

The appeals court reversed a lower court decision on the free speech issue, concluding that the state's ban is "more extensive than necessary to serve the state's interest in preventing consumer deception." The appeals court agreed with a lower court ruling that the rule does not impede interstate commerce.

The execution of a convicted rapist-murderer in California has been called off after rulings in state and federal courts, officials said Wednesday.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation removed Albert Greenwood Brown's execution from its calendar on Wednesday, a few hours after the California Supreme Court denied the state's request to proceed with the scheduled execution on Thursday night.

The state filed the request early Wednesday, after a federal court judge blocked Brown's execution Tuesday night. The execution would have been California's first since 2006, when challenges to the constitutionality of lethal injection forced the state to revise its measures.

Justices on the Arkansas Supreme Court sharply questioned the state attorney general's office Thursday, asking what damage could be done if a judge examined evidence that allegedly exonerates an inmate sentenced to death for killing three Cub Scouts in 1993.

"What harm is there in allowing (inmate Damien Echols) to present all evidence?" Special Justice Jeff Priebe asked senior assistant attorney general David Raupp.

Raupp responded: "The harm is to the criminal justice system's interest in finality and the work that gets done in evaluating whether justice can be served."

Echols, 35, has been on Arkansas' death row since he was 20 years old, sentenced to death for the 1993 killings of 8-year-olds Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. He's maintained his innocence since his arrest and argues that he would be acquitted if retried on the charges.

The state Supreme Court upheld Echols' conviction in 1996, and Echols filed a new appeal after the court granted him permission to test DNA evidence from the crime scene, where the boys were found beaten, nude and hog-tied.

An Israeli court has rejected an Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate's appeal against her deportation orders over entering Israel while being banned from the country.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire was detained at an airport lockup earlier this week for violating the conditions of her ban imposed in June, when she tried to reach Gaza aboard a blockade-busting ship.

At the time, Maguire was told she couldn't return for 10 years except with special approval.

The district court rejected her appeal Friday but gave her 48 hours to allow time for a Supreme Court appeal.

The 66-year-old Maguire is an outspoken champion of Palestinian statehood. Israel has banned other pro-Palestinian activists from entering, including Jewish-American linguist Noam Chomsky in May.

A California appeals court ruled Thursday that psychiatric and other confidential records of Franciscan friars accused of sex abuse should be made public.

The ruling from the 2nd District Court of Appeal is significant for clergy abuse victims who have been fighting for the public disclosure of records that the Roman Catholic church kept of abusive clergy.

The ruling arose from lawsuits filed against the Franciscan Friars of California Inc. by 25 plaintiffs alleging sexual abuse at the hands of friars.

Those plaintiffs settled for $28 million in 2006, but the settlement agreement also sought the release of records on six of the friars.

The trial judge found the social interests of protecting children from molestation outweighed the privacy rights of the friars, who then appealed the decision to make their psychiatric, medical and other records public.

An attorney representing the friars said Thursday's ruling robs the church — or any other organization dealing with children — of a way to find out if abuse is taking place without threatening the suspected abuser.

Priests or other employees who are molesting children may no longer discuss their crimes with a therapist or doctor because those records could now be made public, said Robert Howie, who represents the individual friars.

Frederick R. Anderson, a lawyer with the Washington, D.C., office of McKenna, Long, and Aldridge LLP, will be honored with the 2010 American Bar Association Award for Excellence in Environmental, Energy, and Resources Stewardship from the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources. 

Anderson will receive the award at 8 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 1, during a special presentation at the section’s 18th Section Fall Meeting at the Sheraton New Orleans. 

The ABA Award for Excellence in Environmental, Energy, and Resources Stewardship was established in 2002 to recognize the accomplishments of a person, organization or group that has distinguished itself in environmental, energy and resources stewardship.  Anderson was selected for this honor based on his sustained leadership and innovation in the development of the field of environmental law and policy for more than 40 years. 

For nearly 20 years, Anderson has been in private practice litigating complex multi-party disputes between companies, governments, financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and indigenous groups. He worked on high-profile projects such as Alaskan offshore oil drilling and wind energy projects of Cape Cod. Internationally, Anderson has counseled clients in Central and South America, Africa and the Pacific regions on issues as diverse as greenhouse gas emissions management, hazardous waste disposal and forest projects. 

Anderson was the first full-time president of the Environmental Law Institute, a primary source for the then-growing field of environmental law. He continued to drive the development of environmental law as a distinct practice area as a professor at the University of Utah College of Law, and later, as the dean of American University’s Washington College of Law. While in academia, Anderson co-authored the popular casebook Environmental Protection: Law and Policy, now in its fourth edition. 

A member of the ABA, Anderson is also an executive committee member for the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Technology and Law.  He chairs the boards of  both the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and the Center for International Environmental Law. 

Anderson graduated summa cum laude from the University of North Carolina, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree.  He also received a Bachelor of Arts from Oxford University, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. 

The ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources is the premier forum for strategies and information for environmental, energy and resource lawyers. Representing more than 11,000 members with a wide range of professional interests, the section keeps its members abreast of development trends, current court decisions, legislative initiatives and statutes concerning environmental, natural resources and energy law.
 
With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.