Did Rove Break Any Laws?

At the heart of the Rove Ruckus is the question of whether or not he broke any laws. With a serious grand jury probe going on, it would seem the prosecutor is convinced someone did -- even if Mr Rove didn't.

The Intelligence Identities Protection Act was passed in 1982. It makes it a crime to intentionally identify a covert agent.

But a Congressional Research Service report on October 3, 2003, indicated no one has ever been prosecuted under the act.

At the heart of the current case is this particular section of the law:

Sec. 421(c) ...Whoever...discloses any information that identifies an individual as a covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information ... shall be fined under Title 18 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

The fine is up to $250,000.

The CRS report says the greatest amount of debate over the validity of the law was over this particular section and whether it passed First Amendment muster. It was heavily debated on those grounds. The Senate Judiciary and Conference Committees finally decided the law would pass any Constitutional test.

But it's never been tested in court.