JUSTICE IS OFTEN DELAYED

You may recall that over 1,000 people were swept up in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and the worst crime that any of them committed was overstaying their visas.

Judge Orders U.S. to Release Names of 9/11 Detainees
by Neil A. Lewis
Published on Saturday, August 3, 2002 in the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 — A federal judge ruled today that the Bush administration had no right to conceal the identities of hundreds of people arrested after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and she ordered that most of their names be released within 15 days.

The ruling by Judge Gladys Kessler of Federal District Court dealt a significant setback to the government's policy of secret detentions, mostly of immigrants, in connection with the Sept. 11 investigation. Judge Kessler rejected the Justice Department's arguments that disclosure of the names would impede its investigation of terrorists.

The opinion noted that the government said on Nov. 5 that it had detained 1,182 people in connection with the Sept. 11 investigation. But Judge Kessler suggested that the numbers were confusing and that the Justice Department has never given a full accounting of who had been arrested.

"As of this moment," she said, "the public does not know how many persons the government has arrested and detained as part of its Sept. 11 investigation, nor does it know who most of them are, where they are and whether they are represented by counsel."

Amid the uncertainty, the judge noted that the Justice Department had provided some numbers, notably that 751 people were arrested for immigration violations. As of June 13, only 74 remained in custody, the rest having been released or deported.

Now, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that John Ashcroft, who was the Attorney General at the time, can be sued by some of those who were detained:

Ashcroft can be sued over arrests, appeals court rules
By Carol J. Williams
September 5, 2009
LA Times

Then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft violated the rights of U.S. citizens in the fevered wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by ordering arrests on material witness warrants when the government lacked probable cause, a federal appeals court said in a scathing opinion Friday.

Members of the panel, all appointees of Republican presidents, characterized Ashcroft's detention policy as "repugnant to the Constitution, and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history."