Plame Lawyer: Team Plans To Take Case To U.S. Supreme Court If U.S. Court Of Appeals Rejects Appeal

[Hissyspit]

http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_6457748?nclick_check=1

Burlingame lawyer pursuing Plame suit
He's part of team behind outed CIA agent
By Aaron Kinney
MediaNews
Article Launched: 07/25/2007 01:33:43 AM PDT

A legal team that includes Burlingame attorney Joe Cotchett is moving ahead with a civil suit on behalf of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, following a setback in federal court. The couple have filed an appeal of a decision last week by U.S. District Judge John Bates that dismissed their suit against four Bush Administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

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Wilson and Plame filed their appeal the next day. They are pursuing four constitutional claims, which assert that their First Amendment and Fifth Amendment rights were violated, and one common-law tort claim alleging the public disclosure of private facts.

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Cotchett, a renowned trial attorney and one-third of the couple's legal team, said Tuesday that Bates "read the law too narrowly." "The argument we make is that their conduct was illegal, because it's an illegal act to out a CIA agent," Cotchett said of the defendants. "He never really reached that issue."

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The Intelligence Identities Protection Act, Chemerinsky said, is a criminal statute, and "no court has ever said that a criminal statute precludes a civil suit for money damages." Cotchett said his legal team plans to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit turns down its appeal.

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[Hissyspit]

1. .

[mmonk]

2. I will continue to support the effort.

Others should as well.
http://www.wilsonsupport.org/

[Hissyspit]

3. Thanks. n/t

[mmonk]

4. A kick for those who care about justice.

:kick:

[TacticalPeek]

5. K & R

:kick:

[MagickMuffin]

6. Off to the Greatest ye shall go....

and a great send off to boot...

[sojourner]

7. and who thinks THAT's going to do any good?

[Lugnut]

8. K&R n/t