Ashcroft can be held liable for violating the civil rights of those picked up in the sweeps after 9/11 of people as “witnesses” who then were considered terrorists without a shred of evidence.
Even though it’s taken a long time, as with almost all legal cases, this is a very good step forward.
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Completely apart from the usual tired arguments about “national security” being an umbrella under which government officials can break the law and get away with it, I’m sort of afraid that it’s going to take another Oklahoma City-type incident, in which the follow-up involves over-reaction and superficial profiling before those who think the harassment and unlawful treatment of fellow Americans is not that big a deal really get it. Next time some white supremacist kills or bombs and a net is spread wide enough to haul in busloads of racist fellow-travelers as possible suspects, you can imagine the howls of protest from the right. Kidd was a Muslim, and therefore the expectation of Ashcroft-supporters is that non-Muslims should not be exercised about his (Kidd’s) treatment, the unspoken message being that a good American has no business being Muslim to start with.