« on: July 01, 2008, 02:53:46 PM »
A federal appeals court, in a major victory for federal officials in pursuing individuals suspected of terrorism, ruled on Monday that foreign nationals may not sue U.S. government officers for money damages for capturing them and sending them to foreign countries where they were tortured.
The decision by the Second Circuit Court in New York City, in a high-profile case seen as a significant legal test of the U.S. program of “special rendition,†also barred a claim specific to this case that U.S. officials seriously mistreated the detained individual while he remained in this country before being sent abroad involuntarily.
In both aspects of its rulings, the Circuit Court found it unnecessary to rule on the federal government’s claim that the case could not go forward in court because it would intrude on the “state secrets privilege†against disclosing classsified information.
Still, one of the key reasons the Court blocked a damages remedy was its concern that “adjudication of the claim at issue would necessarily intrude on the implementation of national security policies and interfere with our country’s relations with foreign powers.†In this case, it said, a court would have to probe the actions not only of the U.S. government, but of the governments of Canada, Jordan and Syria.
The decision, dividing the Circuit Court 2 to 1, came in the case of Arar v. Ashcroft, et al. (Circuit docket 06-4216).
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/circuit-court-no-damages-for-rendition/
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I can see November 2 from my house!!!
Spread my work ethic, not my wealth.
Forget change, bring back common sense.
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No, my friends, there’s only one really progressive idea. And that is the idea of legally limiting the power of the government. That one genuinely liberal, genuinely progressive idea — the Why in 1776, the How in 1787 — is what needs to be conserved. We need to conserve that fundamentally liberal idea. That is why we are conservatives. --Bill Whittle
