In 2003, former star running back at the University of Idaho, Abdullah al-Kidd, was held in federal detention for sixteen days. He was left in a small cell for hours at a time, where he was sometimes shackled and naked. Mr. Kidd was held as a “material witness”. A material witness is normally used to hold people who have information about crimes that others have committed when people think that they will not come to court to give testimony. Mr. Kidd believes that the law was used to keep him because he was suspected for terrorist activities.
On Monday, the Supreme Court decided whether Abdullah al-Kidd may sue former attorney general, John Ashcroft, for what he thinks was an ”unconstitutional use of a law” that is used to hold material witnesses. Judge Milan D. Smith said that using the material witness law to inspect someone for other reasons would violate the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. However, since 9/11 the government is able to arrest and restrict citizens that they want to investigate or prevent them from communicating with the outside world. The judges decided not to rehear the case because the reasoning was “irrelevant so long as they followed the letter of material witness law”.
In this case, the Fourth Amendment comes into play. The Fourth Amendment states that “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” It is violated if Mr. Kidd was actually being held for suspected terrorist activities. This would mean they were holding him for one thing and investigating him on another, which would be an unreasonable search and seizure.
This case was very confusing and would have been hard to make a decision. More information needed to be given for the reasoning of Mr. Kidd’s initial detainment. His rights were violated when he was forced to stay in jail for sixteen days without an exact explanation. It was unfair that the Court decided not to hear the trial again.
Justices to Hear Appeal Over Liability for Detention
No comments:
Post a Comment