A federal judge in Idaho ruled Wednesday that former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be held legally responsible in a lawsuit filed by a star college football player who claims he was was illegally held as a material witness in a terrorism investigation.
Attorneys for the plaintiff in the civil suit, Abdullah al-Kidd, said the decision raises the possibility that Ashcroft could be forced to testify or turn over records about the government's use of the material witness law, a cornerstone of its controversial legal strategy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
This action continues at a time when there is a growing and long, overdue sentiment that we are cheapening our country when we decide that the very rights that make this country the greatest in the world do not have to be observed when it is more convenient to do otherwise.
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