July 20, 2007 (LPAC)--In a 41-page decision, federal Judge John Bates dismissed Joseph and Valerie Wilson's case today, without addressing the substance of what the Wilsons said the defendants had done to them. The Wilsons had sued Vice President Cheney, Lewis Libby, Karl Rove, Richard Armitage, and other unknown defendants in federal court in D.C., for exposing Valerie Plame Wilson's identity as a covert CIA operative against weapons of mass destruction. The lawsuit made several claims for money damages for violations of the Wilsons' Constitutional rights, and a claim under D.C. law for public disclosure of a private fact.

Judge Bates ruled on the basis of Supreme Court precedent regarding lawsuits for damages on Constitutional grounds against individual U.S government officers or employees. That precedent, briefly, says that since the Constitution itself prescribes no penalties, if Congress has written no specific laws about such violations, courts should be hesitant to themselves fashion remedies if Congress has created a "comprehensive, remedial statutory" scheme to deal in general with such violations. If Congress has created such a remedial scheme, even if it does nothing for the victims of Constitutional violations, the courts should defer to that body of law. Judge Bates ruled that the Privacy Act about dissemination of information about individuals, is such a remedial scheme. Therefore, he said, any federal action against the defendants should have occurred under the Privacy Act, even though it only allows damage claims against agencies (not individuals), and apparently exempts the Offices of the President and Vice President. For that reason, the Wilsons' claims under the Constitution were dismissed.

Bates ruled on the claim under D.C. law, that it was controlled by the Westfall Act concerning negligent or wrongful acts by any U.S. government employee acting in the scope of his employment. Under the Westfall Act, individual employees are immune from lawsuit under those circumstances, and the proper defendant on that claim was the U.S. Government, Bates ruled. However, the Wilsons did not carry out the prerequisite steps for suing the federal government, and so that claim was dismissed as well.