Two Federal Trade Commission lawyers should be shielded from liability for their roles in a data-breach case the agency brought against a medical-test company, the U.S. Justice Department told a federal appeals court Thursday.

The agency lawyers, Alain Sheer and Ruth Yodaiken, who participated in the investigation of the now-defunct Atlanta company LabMD Inc., want the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn a lower court ruling that exposed them to civil damages.