On May 18, 2009, the US Supreme Court ruled in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, concerning a complaint filed against former US Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and other officials. The Court held 5-4 that terrorism suspect Javaid Iqbal failed to adequately state a claim under Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Court's 2007 decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly. Iqbal had alleged mistreatment by the FBI based on religious and ethnic bias during his detention in a Brooklyn maximum security jail, and that Ashcroft and Meuller became complicit in the discrimination when they approved the policy that resulted in his detention.

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