Supreme Court to weigh immunity in post 9/11 crackdown

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

WASHINGTON - The US Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the top US justice official is

John Ashcroft

Controversy over immunity of US justice official over illegal crackdown on Muslims.

By Ali al-Touajri – BAQUBA, Iraq

immune from lawsuits stemming from a crackdown on Muslims following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The case involves a suit filed against John Ashcroft, the attorney general under former president George W. Bush, by Abdullah al-Kidd, a US citizen detained for 15 days as a material witness in a probe of terrorism.

A lower court ruled that Ashcroft, who is being sued for violating the man's constitutional rights, is not immune from litigation. An appeals court upheld that decision, which would allow the case to go forward.

Ashcroft's attorneys argued that the appeals court "committed a series of fundamental errors, the immediate effect of which is to expose the former attorney general to burdensome litigation and potential damages for the conduct of his subordinates."

Al-Kidd's lawyers maintained that in the aftermath of the worst terror strikes in US history, "dozens of individuals, including many United States citizens like respondent al-Kidd, were arrested as material witnesses pursuant to a policy adopted and implemented by petitioner Ashcroft."

The brief argued that the actions violated the rights of al-Kidd and others.

"The impetus for arresting these individuals was not to secure their testimony for a criminal proceeding," it said.

"Rather, these were individuals whom the government viewed as suspects and wished to detain and investigate.

"But because the government lacked probable cause to arrest these individuals on criminal charges, it had them arrested as material witnesses, thereby circumventing the Fourth Amendment's traditional probable cause standard and distorting the basic purpose of the material witness statute."

The Supreme Court is expected to render its decision before the end of its term in June 2011.