Court Throws Out 9/11 Detainee Case

On the same day that Jeffrey Toobin wrote a long article for The New Yorker about Chief Justice John Roberts’ conservatism, the Supreme Court has thrown out a lawsuit by a 9/11 detainee against FBI Director Robert Mueller and former attorney general John Ashcroft. Javaaid Iqbal, a Paksitani Muslim, was held in solitary confinement for six months in New York in 2002, and said that he was confined because of his beliefs and race. The court agreed, however, with the government's argument that there was nothing linking Mueller or Ashcroft with the abuses at the New York facility. It was a 5-4 decision, with the liberal justices dissenting as a bloc.