WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court came to the aid of former Attorney General John Ashcroft on Monday and agreed to decide whether he and other high-level Bush administration officials are shielded from being sued by immigrants who say they were rounded up, beaten and abused after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
A federal judge in Brooklyn and the U.S. appeals court in Manhattan had cleared the way for a Pakistani man to press his lawsuit against the people who were running the Justice Department in 2001.
Javaid Iqbal was arrested at his Long Island, N.Y., home on Nov. 2, 2001. He says he was beaten and abused over the next six months. No charges were ever filed against him, and he was released and deported to Pakistan.
He then filed a lawsuit against Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and other officials, claiming they violated his constitutional rights by subjecting him to abuse and by discriminating against him because of his religion and nationality.
