Supreme Court: 9/11 detainees can't sue top US officials

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Muslim men detained after the Sept. 11 attacks can't sue top U.S. law enforcement officials.

The justices by a 4-2 vote ended a long-running lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former FBI Director Robert Mueller and other top Bush administration officials. The suit was filed by Muslim men who were detained for months in harsh conditions in a Brooklyn jail after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

They were seeking damages against Ashcroft, Mueller, former immigration chief James Ziglar and the man who ran the federal jail. A lower court still may re-examine claims against the jailer. In his majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy noted that the case arose in the aftermath of the deadly attacks, when U.S. officials wanted to be sure that there were no other potential attackers in the country. The men who were arrested all were in the United States illegally, many having stayed past the expiration of a visa.

"There is, therefore, a balance to be struck, in situations like this one, between deterring constitutional violations and freeing high officials to make the lawful decisions necessary to protect the Nation in times of great peril," Kennedy wrote. But Congress, not the courts, should set when top officials can be sued, Kennedy said.