2008), was a civil lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on 13 July, 2006, by Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV, against Richard Armitage (individually) for allegedly revealing her identity and thus irresponsibly infringing upon her Constitutional rights and against Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, Lewis Libby, Karl Rove, and the unnamed others (together) because the latter, in addition, allegedly "illegally conspired to reveal her identity.

[8] Bates noted that "there can be no serious dispute that the act of rebutting public criticism, such as that levied by Mr. Wilson against the Bush administration's handling of prewar foreign intelligence, by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of defendants' duties as high-level Executive Branch officials," even if "the alleged means by which defendants chose to rebut Mr. Wilson's comments and attack his credibility" were "highly unsavory"; but Judge Bates also acknowledged that the lawsuit raised "important questions relating to the propriety of actions undertaken by our highest government officials.

"[10] On July 20, 2007, the Wilsons and Melanie Sloan, of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which represents them, announced publicly that they had filed an appeal of the U.S. District Court's decision to dismiss their lawsuit,[11][12] which was heard on May 8, 2008.

[13] On August 12, 2008, in a 2–1 decision, the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the dismissal.

On the current justice department position, Sloan, stated: "We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson.