Supreme Court nixes suit against ex-attorney general

Former US Attorney General John Ashcroft © AFP/Getty Images/File Mark Wilson

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Supreme Court has ruled that former attorney general John Ashcroft cannot be held responsible for police and judicial excesses committed in the period after the September 11 attacks.

In a unanimous decision on Monday, the court overturned an appeals court decision authorizing a lawsuit brought against Ashcroft by Abdullah Al-Kidd, an American convert to Islam.

Al-Kidd was detained in March 2003 and held without charges as a “material witness,” a formulation widely used after the 2001 attacks on the United States to ensure suspects were available to testify in terrorism cases.

Held in isolation for 15 days, Al-Kidd was mistreated and never called to testify in connection with the terrorism case, for which he was detained and which ended in a not guilty verdict.

The Supreme Court concluded Ashcroft had not violated the plaintiff’s constitutional rights against arbitrary arrest as the police acted under a valid mandate.

“Qualified immunity gives government officials breathing room to make reasonable but mistaken judgments about open legal questions,” the court said.

Ashcroft “deserves qualified immunity even assuming ‘contrafactually’ that his alleged detention policy violated the Fourth Amendment” of the US constitution, it said.

The administration of US President Barack Obama argued in favor of the former attorney general, seeking to prevent a proliferation of lawsuits against former officials over excesses in the war on terrorism launched under former president George W. Bush.

© AFP — Published at Activist Post with license