Court to Rule In Suit Against Ashcroft, Others

The Supreme Court said yesterday it will decide whether former attorney general John D. Ashcroft and top Bush administration officials are protected from a lawsuit filed by a Pakistani man who alleges he was abused after his arrest following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The court granted the government's request to hear the case after lower courts said that the lawsuit by Javaid Iqbal, a Muslim who was picked up at his home on Long Island, N.Y., and spent months in solitary confinement, could proceed.

The government argued that the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York would subject "high-level government officials to discovery and even a trial based merely on conclusory allegations that such officials knew of or condoned alleged wrongdoing by subordinate officials."

Iqbal alleges that his treatment at a federal holding facility in Brooklyn was based on unlawful racial and religious discrimination for which federal officials, including Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, are personally liable.

Iqbal was arrested in November 2001, one of many persons of "high interest" picked up by the government after the Sept. 11 attacks.

He was cleared of terrorism involvement, but pleaded guilty to Social Security fraud. After serving more than a year in prison, he was deported to Pakistan.