Arar v. Ashcroft: Contract Torture and State Secrecy (Edmundson)

The Alien Tort Claims Act was enacted in 1789 to assure a federal judicial forum to anyone seeking redress for a wrong "committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States."  Congress in 1991 passed the Torture Victim Prevention Act further to assure that victims of torture or extra-judicial killing carried out under color of the law of any state may seek redress in the courts of the United States.  What then of the suit brought by Maher Arar, a Canadian software engineer seized by US officials at Kennedy Airport in 2002, and "rendered" to Syria to be abused and tortured?   Well, if officials of our government invoke unspecified "state secrets" in their defense, there is no jurisdiction, or so a US District Court in New York ruled last week  Op-Ed columnist Bob Herbert, in "The Torturers Win" (New York Times, Feb. 20) has the story; and the Center For Constitutional Rights has a description and synopsis, as well as a link to Judge David Trager's opinion in Arar v. Ashcroft.  (Shhh....)