On February 1, 2010, Canadian citizen Maher Arar petitioned the US Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari to overturn a ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit finding that he could not sue the US government for damages based on his detention in the US and his detention, interrogation and torture in Syria after he was mistakenly identified as a terrorist. Arar was attempting to challenge the US government's policy of extraordinary rendition under the Torture Victim Protection Act and the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution. The Supreme Court later denied the petition, allowing the lower court ruling to stand.



Learn more about Maher Arar and extraordinary rendition from the JURIST news archive.