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(11-30) 18:27 PST BERKELEY -- Berkeley activists can sue federal agents for their role in a 2008 raid in which officers seized their computers and records in search of alleged threats by animal-rights advocates, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The activist group Long Haul Inc. can try to prove that the search of its Berkeley offices exceeded legal boundaries, that agents misled the judge who issued a search warrant, and that it was targeted because of its left-wing views, said U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White.

An unaffiliated group with offices in the same Berkeley building, East Bay Prisoner Support, also won the right to sue on the same grounds.

Both groups have also sued the University of California, whose police were involved in the raid. The university did not join the federal government's attempt to dismiss the suit.

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