The Supreme Court says Virginia's advocate for the mentally ill can sue to force state officials to provide records relating to deaths and injuries at state mental health facilities.

The justices, in a 6-2 ruling Tuesday, reinstated the Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy lawsuit against Virginia's mental health commissioner and two other officials.

The federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., had dismissed the state advocate's lawsuit. The issue for the court was whether the Eleventh Amendment prohibits a state agency from going to federal court to sue officials of the same state.

Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the court's opinion, says the lawsuit should have been permitted. Justice Elena Kagan did not take part in the case.

Texas has long considered beaches to be public property up to the vegetation line, but a Supreme Court ruling put that in doubt. In November, the court cited early Texas history and ruled that Galveston Island's West Beach could be considered private property.

The Supreme Court agreed to rehear the case on Tuesday morning after the General Land Office complained the more recent Open Beaches Act superseded the earlier law.

The lawsuit arose after Hurricane Rita eroded the sand and left several homes on the beach. The GLO tried to foreclose on those structures, but the property owner took the state to court.

Media organizations are joining lawyers for two-same-sex couples in urging a federal appeals court to release videotapes of a lower court trial on California's gay marriage ban.

The 13 organizations, which include The Associated Press, argued in a motion filed Monday with the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals that the videos are court records that the First Amendment requires to be open to the public.

Sponsors of voter-approved Proposition 8 asked the 9th Circuit last week to keep the tapes sealed and to order the trial's presiding judge to return his personal copies.

The move came after now-retired Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional, used a brief segment of the video in several public talks.

The Obama administration and leading power companies are going before the Supreme Court in an effort to block a global warming lawsuit aimed at forcing cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in the court's second climate change case in four years. A half-dozen states, New York City and three land trusts sued four private utilities and the Tennessee Valley Authority over emissions of carbon dioxide from plants in 20 states. The lawsuit says carbon dioxide, which is produced when coal, gasoline and other fossil fuels burn, is one of the chief causes of global warming.

The administration and the companies say federal courts should not set environmental policy. The administration says the Environmental Protection Agency is developing regulations that would accomplish what the states are seeking.