NEW YORK —

       A judge gave the green light Wednesday to a lawsuit against Britain’s Prince Andrew by an American woman who says he sexually abused her when she was 17.

       U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote in an opinion that the prince’s lawyers failed to successfully challenge the constitutionality of the lawsuit Virginia Giuffre filed against him in August. Giuffre alleges that Andrew had sex with her at a gathering with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

       His lawyers had argued that the lawsuit lacked specificity and was disqualified by a deal she reached in 2009 with lawyers for Epstein.

       The settlement of that lawsuit was reached a decade before Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

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       Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.