Fed. court refuses to resurrect CIA leak case

[EV_Ares]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court refused on Tuesday to resurrect a lawsuit that former CIA operative Valerie Plame brought against members of the Bush administration.
Plame accused Vice President Dick Cheney and several former high-ranking administration officials of revealing her identity to reporters in 2003. She and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, say that violated their constitutional rights.

It was an unusual case and even some on Plame's legal team acknowledged the case was an uphill fight from the start.

A federal judge dismissed the case last year, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld that ruling Tuesday. The appeals court said that Plame and Wilson did not meet the legal standard for constitutional claims, in part because the lawsuit hinges on alleged violations of the Privacy Act, which does not cover the offices of the president or the vice president.

The lawsuit named former presidential adviser Karl Rove; Cheney's former top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby; and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

rest of the article @ the link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-08-12-plame-ruling_N.htm