By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com
The Justice Department has jumped into the fray to try and help two Secret Service agents from being sued in a case linked to former vice president Dick Cheney.
The Associated Press reports that the Department of Justice filed documents in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver siding with the agents –Virgil D. “Gus” Reichle Jr. and Dan Doyle — who asked that the court overturn the court’s three-judge panel’s ruling that said Colorado resident Steven Howards could sue them.
AP reported that the Justice Department is arguing that the law protects agents when making split-second decisions when protecting a vice president and president.
AP reported that the Secret Service agents arrested Howards in 2006 after he allegedly approached Cheney at a mall outside of Denver and protested his Iraq policy and touched his shoulder.
Howards alleged in the suit that the arrest was done in retaliation. The feds never charged him and the state dropped charges.
The court panel ruled last month that Howards can sue agents on First Amendment grounds, the Associated Press reported. The court ruled that two other agents initially named in the suit are immune in the case.
Last month, Howard’s attorney David Lane said: “I fully intend on deposing the former vice president.”
