High court weighs lawsuit against FBI head, ex-AG

Lawyer Blogs

Supreme Court justices voiced concern Wednesday about including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller in a lawsuit that claims prisoners detained after the Sept. 11 attacks were abused because of their religion and ethnicity.

Yet the court offered no clear indication that it was prepared to order Ashcroft and Mueller removed from a suit filed by Javaid Iqbal, a Pakistani Muslim who spent nearly six months in solitary confinement in New York in 2002.

Iqbal, since deported from the United States, says Ashcroft, Mueller and others implemented a policy of confining detainees in highly restrictive conditions because of their religious beliefs or race.

"The question here is, who is responsible?" said Alexander Reinert, Iqbal's Yonkers, N.Y.-based lawyer.

Solicitor General Gregory Garre argued on behalf of Ashcroft and Mueller that nothing in Iqbal's complaint ties the allegedly discriminatory acts of lower-level officials to his clients.

The case will help determine when Cabinet officers and other high-ranking officials can be sued over allegations that lower-level government workers have violated people's civil rights.

A federal appeals court said the lawsuit could proceed, but the Bush administration says the high-ranking officials should be dismissed from the suit because Iqbal lacks evidence that they intended or condoned the harsh treatment.

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Grounds for Divorce in Ohio - Sylkatis Law, LLC

A divorce in Ohio is filed when there is typically “fault” by one of the parties and party not at “fault” seeks to end the marriage. A court in Ohio may grant a divorce for the following reasons:
• Willful absence of the adverse party for one year
• Adultery
• Extreme cruelty
• Fraudulent contract
• Any gross neglect of duty
• Habitual drunkenness
• Imprisonment in a correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint
• Procurement of a divorce outside this state by the other party

Additionally, there are two “no-fault” basis for which a court may grant a divorce:
• When the parties have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation
• Incompatibility, unless denied by either party

However, whether or not the the court grants the divorce for “fault” or not, in Ohio the party not at “fault” will not get a bigger slice of the marital property.

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