SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Supreme Court Delivers 'Dangerous Message': Immunity for Former Bush Officials Over 9/11 Detentions
'This decision regrettably provides constitutional immunity for some of the most high-level officials responsible for gross abuses in the aftermath of September 11,' said ACLU's Hina Shamsi.
Jun 19, 2017
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that former George W. Bush officials cannot be held liable for the abuse and detention of a group of Muslim, South Asian, and Arab non-citizens swept up in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"This decision regrettably provides constitutional immunity for some of the most high-level officials responsible for gross abuses in the aftermath of September 11," stated Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project.
The 4-2 ruling (pdf) overturns a 2015 decision by a lower court, and marks a victory for the officials in question: former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller (who's now serving as special counsel to investigate the ties between Russia and Trump's election campaign), and former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar. The former wardens at the detention facility Dennis Hasty and James Sherman were also named in the case.
As the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which first brought the suit forward, explains, the plaintiffs sought accountability for the officials' role "in ordering racial and religious profiling and abuse in detention, in violation of the detainees' rights under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. Our clients were held in a specially-created Administrative Maximum Special Housing Unit (ADMAX SHU), in solitary confinement. They were purposefully deprived of sleep, denied contact with the outside world, beaten and verbally abused, and denied the ability to practice their religion."
Their detention was based "on their race, religion, ethnicity, and immigration status," CCR says.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority: "Allowing a damages suit in this context, or in a like context in other circumstances, would require courts to interfere in an intrusive way with sensitive functions of the Executive Branch."
"The risk of personal damages liability is more likely to cause an official to second-guess difficult but necessary decisions concerning national-security policy," Kennedy continued.
The decision also noted the "telling silence" of Congress and argues that there is "a balance to be struck, in situations like this one, between deterring constitutional violations and freeing high officials to make the lawful decisions necessary to protect the Nation in times of great peril." But the "proper balance is one for the Congress, not the Judiciary, to undertake."
"We are very disappointed with the Court's dismissal of our clients' claims," said CCR senior staff attorney Rachel Meeropol. "The Court's decision allows for high-level officials to violate the Constitution without fear of personal accountability--a dangerous message in this time of rampant state-sponsored discrimination against Muslim and immigrant communities."
For one of the plaintiffs, Benamar Benatta, the ruling is "is a total failure of justice."
"To this day we see high-level officials either retired or still holding office talk and praise the effectiveness of torture and mistreatment of detainees despite mounting evidence to the contrary! It is only by holding high-level officials to account when their policies are ineffective or discriminatory that a country can properly heal and look forward to the future," Benatta said.
Justice Stephen Breyer, who was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, issued the dissenting opinion.
"If I may paraphrase Justice [John Marshall] Harlan," wrote Breyer, "in wartime as well as in peacetime, it is important, in a civilized society, that the judicial branch of the Nation's government stand ready to afford a remedy for the most flagrant and patently unjustified, unconstitutional abuses of official power."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that former George W. Bush officials cannot be held liable for the abuse and detention of a group of Muslim, South Asian, and Arab non-citizens swept up in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"This decision regrettably provides constitutional immunity for some of the most high-level officials responsible for gross abuses in the aftermath of September 11," stated Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project.
The 4-2 ruling (pdf) overturns a 2015 decision by a lower court, and marks a victory for the officials in question: former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller (who's now serving as special counsel to investigate the ties between Russia and Trump's election campaign), and former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar. The former wardens at the detention facility Dennis Hasty and James Sherman were also named in the case.
As the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which first brought the suit forward, explains, the plaintiffs sought accountability for the officials' role "in ordering racial and religious profiling and abuse in detention, in violation of the detainees' rights under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. Our clients were held in a specially-created Administrative Maximum Special Housing Unit (ADMAX SHU), in solitary confinement. They were purposefully deprived of sleep, denied contact with the outside world, beaten and verbally abused, and denied the ability to practice their religion."
Their detention was based "on their race, religion, ethnicity, and immigration status," CCR says.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority: "Allowing a damages suit in this context, or in a like context in other circumstances, would require courts to interfere in an intrusive way with sensitive functions of the Executive Branch."
"The risk of personal damages liability is more likely to cause an official to second-guess difficult but necessary decisions concerning national-security policy," Kennedy continued.
The decision also noted the "telling silence" of Congress and argues that there is "a balance to be struck, in situations like this one, between deterring constitutional violations and freeing high officials to make the lawful decisions necessary to protect the Nation in times of great peril." But the "proper balance is one for the Congress, not the Judiciary, to undertake."
"We are very disappointed with the Court's dismissal of our clients' claims," said CCR senior staff attorney Rachel Meeropol. "The Court's decision allows for high-level officials to violate the Constitution without fear of personal accountability--a dangerous message in this time of rampant state-sponsored discrimination against Muslim and immigrant communities."
For one of the plaintiffs, Benamar Benatta, the ruling is "is a total failure of justice."
"To this day we see high-level officials either retired or still holding office talk and praise the effectiveness of torture and mistreatment of detainees despite mounting evidence to the contrary! It is only by holding high-level officials to account when their policies are ineffective or discriminatory that a country can properly heal and look forward to the future," Benatta said.
Justice Stephen Breyer, who was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, issued the dissenting opinion.
"If I may paraphrase Justice [John Marshall] Harlan," wrote Breyer, "in wartime as well as in peacetime, it is important, in a civilized society, that the judicial branch of the Nation's government stand ready to afford a remedy for the most flagrant and patently unjustified, unconstitutional abuses of official power."
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that former George W. Bush officials cannot be held liable for the abuse and detention of a group of Muslim, South Asian, and Arab non-citizens swept up in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"This decision regrettably provides constitutional immunity for some of the most high-level officials responsible for gross abuses in the aftermath of September 11," stated Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project.
The 4-2 ruling (pdf) overturns a 2015 decision by a lower court, and marks a victory for the officials in question: former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller (who's now serving as special counsel to investigate the ties between Russia and Trump's election campaign), and former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar. The former wardens at the detention facility Dennis Hasty and James Sherman were also named in the case.
As the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which first brought the suit forward, explains, the plaintiffs sought accountability for the officials' role "in ordering racial and religious profiling and abuse in detention, in violation of the detainees' rights under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. Our clients were held in a specially-created Administrative Maximum Special Housing Unit (ADMAX SHU), in solitary confinement. They were purposefully deprived of sleep, denied contact with the outside world, beaten and verbally abused, and denied the ability to practice their religion."
Their detention was based "on their race, religion, ethnicity, and immigration status," CCR says.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority: "Allowing a damages suit in this context, or in a like context in other circumstances, would require courts to interfere in an intrusive way with sensitive functions of the Executive Branch."
"The risk of personal damages liability is more likely to cause an official to second-guess difficult but necessary decisions concerning national-security policy," Kennedy continued.
The decision also noted the "telling silence" of Congress and argues that there is "a balance to be struck, in situations like this one, between deterring constitutional violations and freeing high officials to make the lawful decisions necessary to protect the Nation in times of great peril." But the "proper balance is one for the Congress, not the Judiciary, to undertake."
"We are very disappointed with the Court's dismissal of our clients' claims," said CCR senior staff attorney Rachel Meeropol. "The Court's decision allows for high-level officials to violate the Constitution without fear of personal accountability--a dangerous message in this time of rampant state-sponsored discrimination against Muslim and immigrant communities."
For one of the plaintiffs, Benamar Benatta, the ruling is "is a total failure of justice."
"To this day we see high-level officials either retired or still holding office talk and praise the effectiveness of torture and mistreatment of detainees despite mounting evidence to the contrary! It is only by holding high-level officials to account when their policies are ineffective or discriminatory that a country can properly heal and look forward to the future," Benatta said.
Justice Stephen Breyer, who was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, issued the dissenting opinion.
"If I may paraphrase Justice [John Marshall] Harlan," wrote Breyer, "in wartime as well as in peacetime, it is important, in a civilized society, that the judicial branch of the Nation's government stand ready to afford a remedy for the most flagrant and patently unjustified, unconstitutional abuses of official power."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.