The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged Rasul v. Rumsfeld

Supreme Court Shuts Door on Gitmo Torture Case

By | 12.15.09 | 6:00 am

The Supreme Court dealt a harsh blow on Monday to victims of abuse by U.S. officials during the “war on terror.” The court announced it would not review a federal appeals court ruling that dismissed a lawsuit by four British citizens who claim they were wrongly arrested, detained More…

Supreme Court Rejects Key Torture Case

By | 12.14.09 | 11:55 am

The Supreme Court today issued a blow to victims of abuse by U.S. officials during the “war on terror.” The high court this morning refused to review a federal appeals court ruling that dismissed a lawsuit by four British citizens who claimed they were wrongly arrested More…

DOJ Doubles Down in Its Defense of John Yoo

By | 12.04.09 | 11:13 am

Talk about getting a second bite of the apple. I’ve written before about the problem with the Department of Justice jumping in to defend a lawsuit charging that John Yoo was responsible for torture and abuse of “enemy combatant” Jose Padilla. Given that Yoo is the subject of More…

Lawyers Slam DOJ for Arguing U.S. Officials Aren’t Liable for Torture Abroad

By | 11.24.09 | 5:20 pm

I’ve been following the small but growing number of lawsuits brought on behalf of torture victims against U.S. government officials for more than a year now, but the opening statement in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Monday on behalf of four British former More…

Rendition Case Tests FBI Immunity

By | 11.10.09 | 6:00 am

Twenty-four-year-old Amir Meshal, the son of Muslim immigrants from Egypt, was a lifelong resident of New Jersey when, after living briefly in Cairo with extended family members, in 2006 he decided to go to Somalia to study Islam and experience living under Islamic law. The country appeared to have stabilized More…

Congress Helped Prosecutors Avoid More of Those Embarassing Waiver Agreements

By | 03.31.09 | 5:56 pm

Since my earlier post on Yaser Hamdi’s express agreement not to sue the United States for his indefinite detention and mistreatment, Cornell Law Professor Michael Dorf, who analyzed the Hamdi agreement shortly after it was reached, has provided a helpful clue as to why we may not be More…

Obama Justice Department Urges Dismissal of Another Torture Case

By | 03.12.09 | 6:46 pm

In another move that suggests the Obama Department of Justice is not making many big policy breaks with its predecessor when it comes to the legal rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees, the department filed a brief renewing the government’s motion to dismiss the case of Rasul v. Rumsfeld.

The More…

Supreme Court Remands Gitmo Torture Damages Case

By | 12.15.08 | 11:27 am

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 More…

How Investigating Bush Administration War Crimes Could Save Taxpayers Money

By | 12.12.08 | 7:30 am

As I wrote on Wednesday, there are already several lawsuits from torture victims pending against the United States, and some legal scholars predict many more to come. So what if an Obama-sponsored investigative commission set up a means for compensating torture victims? That could save the government a whole More…