Bush heads not liable for post-9/11 sweep

WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court tossed a claim that two Bush administration officials practiced discrimination in capturing suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

By a 5-4 majority, the court Monday said the lawsuit didn't cite specific enough factual grounds for the claim of intentional bias by former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former-and-current FBI Director Robert Mueller.

The lower court decision was reversed and remanded to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The ruling, however, didn't give legal immunity to Ashcroft, Muller or other officials who allegedly carried out the discriminatory policies. Instead the justices focused only on requirements that had to be met in the original lawsuit to show selection of those to be detained, and their alleged mistreatment in a New York jail, were the result of race, religious or national origin bias.

In its ruling, the court left it to the circuit court to decide whether to allow those who brought the case to amend their lawsuit in hopes of bolstering it. Javald Iqbal, a Muslim Pakistani who has since been deported, and others involved in the post-Sept. 11 sweep in a New York City jail where, they said they were tortured and experienced religious bias.

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the crackdown appeared to be legitimate, even if it disproportionately impacted Arabs and Muslims.

"The Sept. 11 attacks were perpetrated by 19 Arab Muslim hijackers who counted themselves members in good standing of al-Qaida," Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. "It should come as no surprise that a legitimate policy directing law enforcement to arrest and detain individuals because of their suspected link to the attacks would produce a disparate, incidental impact on Arab Muslims, even though the purpose of the policy was to target neither Arabs nor Muslims."

Kennedy was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Justice David Souter dissented, joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.