The rulings appeared to have delivered a crippling blow to the suit in which the cattleman say a 1996 Winfrey show took a $10 million bite out of beef prices.

U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson said the case would continue on Wednesday as a `common law business disparagement' suit with a higher burden of proof on the plaintiffs, who must now prove the defendants acted with malice.

The suit charges that the show on mad cow disease, aired on April 15, 1996, deliberately misled viewers into thinking that U.S. beef was unsafe, which triggered a price drop.

The judge said the cattlemen, in four weeks of testimony, had failed to show that Winfrey defamed the beef industry under Texas's `veggie libel,' which forbids false statements about perishable agricultural products.

But Robinson stopped short of ruling that the law, versions of which are held in 13 states, was unconstitutional, as Winfrey's attorneys charged.

`It creates too much danger or risk for anyone speaking out about cows or beef,' Winfrey lawyer Chip Babcock told Robinson.

But plaintiffs attorney Joe Coyne said the defendants `knew the falsity of their claims' and should be held responsible.

Opponents of the law say it violates the right to free speech and had hoped the Winfrey case would be the first key constitutional test.

The judge's rulings came at the end of a day of hearings on defendants' motions to dismiss the case. Because of a strict gag order, neither side could talk about the rulings or how the case would now progress.

The plaintiffs rested their case on Friday, so the defendants will begin presenting their witnesses on Wednesday.

On the show, vegetarian activist Howard Lyman said ground up cattle remains were fed to other cattle, which raised the possibility of an epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, that would `make AIDS look like the common cold.'

Winfrey said Lyman's comments had `just stopped me cold from eating another burger.'

Cattle futures prices dropped more than 10 percent the day after the show, but Winfrey's attorneys blamed the drop on overreaction by futures traders, not on Winfrey.

BSE forced the slaughter of 1.5 million cattle in Britain and is blamed for the deaths of at least 20 people.

The U.S. government says BSE does not exist in the United States. The practice of feeding cattle protein to other cattle was banned last year as a precaution against the disease.

- Reuters