In what was plainly a long-shot swing for the fences, lawyers for Scooter Libby filed a motion in February asking that the case against him be dismissed on the ground that Patrick Fitzgerald's appointment -- and the way he has used it -- violated the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution. In a 31-page opinion issued today, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said Libby's lawyers struck out.
As the Associated Press is reporting, Walton said in his opinion that he didn't have to "look far" in the law to reject the arguments Libby's lawyers made. He said that the attorney general is free to delegate his responsibilities, and that he had found no "wholesale abdication of the attorney general's duty to direct and supervise litigation."
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