Monday, June 16, 2008

SCOTUS will hear the case of Ashcroft, et al., v. Iqbal

The high court announced this morning that it will hear the case brought against former AG John Ashcroft and current FBI director Robert Muller in the next term. The ruling will spell out when the cabinet officers can be sued for Constitutional violations carried out by their subordinates.

The Iqbal case grows out of a lawsuit that was filed against former AG Ashcroft, director Mueller and others in their command chain following the post-9-11 roundup of men of Arab descent or who had been identified as Muslims, in an apparent clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

The suit does not challenge the actual roundup, but focuses instead on conditions in the federal prison facility in Brooklyn where many of the men were held.

We have been appalled by the roundup of individuals based on their ethnicity and/or faith since it happened and will be watching the next session for the ruling to be handed down.

~~BG

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