The Associated Press

Fri, May 9, 2008 (8:33 a.m.)

Valerie Plame is trying to resurrect a lawsuit against those in the Bush administration she says illegally outed her as a CIA operative in 2003.

Plame says her CIA cover was blown as retribution for her husband's criticism of the Iraq war. She says that violated her constitutional rights.

A federal judge dismissed Plame's lawsuit last year on procedural grounds. Her lawyers asked a federal appeals court Friday to force the judge to consider the merits of the case.

Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, sued Vice President Dick Cheney; his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby; former White House political adviser Karl Rove and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.