Rasul v. Myers

The news that Mohammed Jawad plans to sue the U.S. government for his unlawful detention and torture raises the question of whether he can get beyond the hurdles so many other torture victims have faced in similar lawsuits.
Previous cases have been dismissed on grounds that government officials had “qualified immunity” for their actions — meaning [...]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled today (pdf) that four British men who say they were tortured while imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay have no right to seek damages from U.S. government officials.
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the ten other senior military officials named in the lawsuit have immunity, the [...]

The New York Times’ opinion page has long been a strong supporter of the rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, but the Times moved a step further today, to support detainees’ right to sue for monetary damages.

The US Supreme Court this morning granted certiorari in the case of Rasul v. Rumsfeld, Myers, et al., the first case in which plaintiffs who claim they were illegally detained, tortured and humiliated at Guantanamo Bay before they were released without charge have claimed civil damages against US officials. Instead of reviewing the case itself, [...]