After agreeing to reconsider its own ruling granting access to the evidence, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the decision, which overturned three lower-court rulings barring authorities from accessing the names, would stand.

Access to the names could bolster the perjury case against Barry Bonds, who is charged with lying to a grand jury about whether he used steroids.

MLB spokesman Rich Levin declined to comment. Michael Weiner, general counsel for the players' association, could not be reached for comment.

Investigators seized computer files containing the test results in 2004 during raids of labs involved in Major League Baseball's drug-testing program.

The investigators had search warrants for 11 players but ended up seizing the test results of every big-league player.

The government argued that it seized everything because the 11 names it wanted were irrevocably mixed with the other names on computer hard drives.

The players' union sued to keep the government from accessing the records, saying the seizures violated the players' constitutional rights.

The samples were collected at baseball's direction the previous year as part of a survey to gauge the prevalence of steroid use.

Players and owners agreed in