The AP reports that U.S. District Judge James Gwin has allowed an Army veteran who says he was abducted and tortured by U.S. forces in Iraq to move forward with a suit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The judge wrote:
The court finds no convincing reason that United States citizens in Iraq should or must lose previously declared substantive due process protections during prolonged detention in a conflict zone abroad. ... The stakes in holding detainees at Camp Cropper may have been high, but one purpose of the constitutional limitations on interrogation techniques and conditions of confinement even domestically is to strike a balance between government objectives and individual rights even when the stakes are high.
The Obama Administration argued that Rumsfeld cannot be sued personally for his official conduct. The Supreme Court's standard regarding immunity of such officials from suit, says the AP article, "requir[es] that they be tied directly to a violation of constitutional rights and must have clearly understood their actions crossed that line."
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