American immigration officials detained Mr. Arar at John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2002. Mr. Arar was then forcibly transported to Syria where he says that he was held in a small cell and beaten repeatedly. Syria released him in 2003. The Canadian commission subsequently found that Mr. Arar poses no security threat.
Mr. Arar’s lawsuit against America, which accuses the country of outsourcing torture, has been repeatedly dismissed. A federal judge at Brooklyn, Eric Trager, tossed out Mr. Arar’s claims in 2006. Today the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits at Manhattan, affirmed Judge Trager’s decision.
The majority opinion concludes that Congress hasn’t allowed “inadmissible aliens” to sue American officials for the decisions leading to their deportation.
