1.   Critics hope the case and subsequent appeals will end with the Supreme Court striking down the Texas law and, by inference, other such veggie libel laws.

2.   In the first court fight, the federal judge ruled that the cattlemen could not use the veggie libel law to recover damages.

3.   That legal option carries a tougher standard of proof than the veggie libel law.

4.   That was before Texas and a dozen other states passed veggie libel laws.

5.   Under the veggie libel law, they would have had to prove only that she defamed their product by saying something she knew was false.