Top Bush officials not liable for Muslims' post-Sept. 11 arrests

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his deputies face a lawsuit from Jose Padilla, a native New Yorker with ties to Al Qaeda who was arrested and held for 3 1/2 years in a military brig in South Carolina. Padilla was convicted in federal court of aiding terrorists, but he has sued on the grounds that he was subjected to abuse.

Hope R. Metcalf, a human rights lawyer who teaches at Yale Law School, sued on Padilla's behalf.

"I think the court is heading down a dangerous path," she said. "They are creating unnecessary obstacles to just getting in the door. This is about being heard."

She added, however, that Padilla's lawsuit contained enough detailed information that it should get past the initial barrier.

The Washington Legal Foundation applauded the court's decision.

It is "particularly welcome because it ensures the ability of senior national security officials to perform their duties without the distraction" of answering to lawsuits, said Richard Samp, a lawyer for the group.

In fall 2001, after the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon, the Justice Department started a search for possible agents of Al Qaeda who could be hiding in the U.S.

Ashcroft said natives of certain Muslim countries should be questioned and, if necessary, held on immigration charges.

Iqbal was designated a person of "high interest" and spent several months locked in a maximum-security facility in Brooklyn. He pleaded guilty to working in the country illegally and was deported to Pakistan.

A federal judge in Brooklyn and the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that his case could go forward because he alleged specific violations of his constitutional rights.

The Supreme Court disagreed Monday in Ashcroft vs. Iqbal.

"We are impelled to give real content to the concept of qualified immunity for high-level officials who must be neither deterred nor detracted from the vigorous performance of their duties," Kennedy said.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined Kennedy to form the majority.

Although the ruling shields the highest officials at the Justice Department, it does not end the lawsuits against prison officials who were directly involved in holding and allegedly abusing Iqbal and other Muslim men.

Retiring Justice David H. Souter, speaking for the dissenters, said the suit against the top officials should have been allowed to go forward.

"Iqbal contends that Ashcroft and Mueller were, at the very least, aware of the discriminatory detention policy and condoned it and perhaps even took part in devising it," he said. Based on such an allegation, he said, the plaintiff should be given a chance to prove his case.

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david.savage@latimes.com

James Oliphant in the Washington bureau contributed to this report.