War on Drugs

Lance Armstrong's Case Against Doping Agency Dismissed

Cyclist had claimed agency lacks jurisdiction and violates his constitutional rights.

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A federal judge in Austin, Texas, threw out Lance Armstrong's lawsuit against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Monday, a decision that allows the agency's drug case against the seven-time Tour de France winner to move ahead.

Armstrong, who repeatedly has denied doping, claimed in his lawsuit that USADA lacked jurisdiction and its arbitration process violates his constitutional rights.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks dismissed the lawsuit as speculative.

"With respect to Armstrong's due process challenges, the court agrees they are without merit," Sparks wrote in a 30-page order. "Alternatively, even if the court has jurisdiction over Armstrong's remaining claims, the court finds they are best resolved through the well-established system of international arbitration, by those with expertise in the field, rather than by the unilateral edict of a single nation's courts."