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.

Delaware carried out its first execution since 2005 early Friday, putting to death a man who was convicted of killing a woman with an ax during a burglary nearly two decades ago.

Robert Jackson III was pronounced dead at 12:12 a.m. after being given a lethal injection at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna.

Jackson, 38, lifted his head when asked for his last words shortly after midnight. Searching the window between the execution chamber and witnesses, he asked if the two children of the victim, Elizabeth Girardi, were watching.

"Are the Girardis in there? Christopher and Claudia, if you are in there, I've never faulted you for your anger. I would have been mad myself," he said, going on to deny he killed their mother.

He suggested that his accomplice in the burglary, Anthony Lachette, was the killer.

"Tony's laughing his ass off right now because you're about to watch an innocent man die. This isn't justice," he said before putting his head back down and closing his eyes.

When the execution began, Jackson started making a snoring sound, his lips sputtered and his breath began to quicken. Prison officials closed the curtain between the execution chamber and witnesses after about four minutes to check whether he was conscious, calling out twice, "Inmate Jackson, can you hear me?" There was no response.

President Barack Obama plans to announce new fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks for the model years 2017 through 2025 at an event Friday in Washington.

The administration has been in negotiations with automakers on boosting fuel economy.

Officials familiar with the talks told The Associated Press this week that recent changes to the standards for light trucks have reduced the proposal to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The administration's initial target for cars and light trucks was 56.2 miles per gallon last month.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that this new round of standards will save consumers money, reduce oil consumption, cut pollution and create jobs.

In 2009, automakers agreed to raise fuel economy standards to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

An Oregon sheriff who lost a state legal battle to deny a concealed handgun license for a medical marijuana patient has decided to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters has argued that issuing the license would violate federal law, specifically the Gun Control Act of 1968.

That argument was rejected by a trial court, the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court in rulings that say state law on concealed handgun permits does not pre-empt federal law, the Mail Tribune reported Wednesday.

Cynthia Willis of Gold Hill acknowledged using medical marijuana when she filed her permit application with Winters in 2008, setting off the legal battle. She was issued a concealed handgun license after the sheriff lost in the Oregon Court of Appeals.

"I was hoping that it was over, but apparently it is not," Willis said. "I'm just so surprised that there would be a further use of tax dollars in this way."

So far, the case has cost the county $13,000 in outside legal fees plus the equivalent of $20,000 in time spent by the county's internal legal team.

Washington County, which lost a similar case, also has decided to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ryan Kirchoff, an attorney for Jackson County, said the Gun Control Act is designed to keep guns out of the hands of people Congress considered potentially dangerous or irresponsible, such as those who use a controlled substance.