Goverment Officials Are Not Above The Law

In Josh Huston’s blog editorial, “Immunity…Not This Time,” Huston tells about a case taken by the Supreme Court to determine if former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be sued for the false imprisonment of Abdullah Kidd.

Huston paints a clear picture for us to understand what happened to Kidd. Kidd was arrested and held in detention for two weeks for being a material witness in a Visa fraud case. Kidd claims the real reason he was arrested was because he was a suspected terrorist for buying a one way ticket to Saudi Arabia and “the Attorney General had put forth a plan of holding suspected terrorists under such a guise.” Kidd wants to sue Ashcroft “for false imprisonment for holding him with no evidence that he engaged in any wrongdoing,” but Ashcroft thinks he is “immune from such charges and shouldn’t be ordered to trial.” I don’t think he should be immune and neither does the U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeal “which ruled that Ashcroft has no immunity in this case.” The Supreme Court will have to uphold the ruling of the lower court in order to bring Ashcroft to court for this case.

Huston says that Ashcroft “abused his powers as an elected official” for violating Kidd’s rights for no reason. After 9/11, airport security stepped up enforcement. I’m sure racial profiling became more common and many mid-eastern people were denied their freedoms. I’m just surprised there haven’t been more cases like this one, or more cases like this that made headlines.

Huston brings up some good points. Why wasn’t Kidd called to testify in the Visa fraud case? Huston says the reason Kidd wasn’t put on trial was because “he did absolutely nothing wrong,” and I agree with that one-hundred percent. I also agree that “government officials shouldn’t be allowed to hide under the veil of immunity when they circumvent the law.” I believe Ashcroft broke the law and should be tried for his criminal act. I think it’s ridiculous that Ashcroft denied Kidd’s rights for buying a plane ticket to Saudi Arabia and I also think “he should be held responsible.”