Supreme Court will hear Ashcroft appeal to kill lawsuit

The new appeal is the third time the court has intervened in lawsuits against Ashcroft and others from Muslims who were arrested in the USA following the 2001 attacks.

The justices said Tuesday that they will review an appellate ruling that allowed the lawsuit claiming that Ashcroft and Mueller should be held accountable for the harsh treatment the men suffered in the months after the worst attacks in US history.

The appeals court ruled that the lawsuit could not move forward in part because the U.S. Constitution's ban on unjustified deadly force did not apply to Hernandez because he was a Mexican citizen on Mexican soil when the shooting occurred in June 2010. He was arrested and placed into custody according to information obtained by Breitbart Texas from U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. The plaintiffs said they were held in harsh conditions and physically abused. Although they did not say why, USA Today said that Sotomayer sat on an appeals panel during an earlier version of the lawsuit, and Kagan was the U.S. Solicitor General during the initial stages.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would consider a long-running lawsuit against former attorney general John Ashcroft and other top officials filed by immigrants who say they were racially profiled and illegally detained after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Ashcroft and Mueller are represented by the US justice department, which asked the high court to hear the appeal. The justices have sided with Ashcroft twice. Congress has yet to fill the seat vacated in February by Antonin Scalia's death, and two justices indicated they will not participate, as Politico reported.

Arguments will likely take place in January, perhaps in time for Congress to confirm a new justice.

The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to intercede in this case as well.

Investigators said U.S. Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa Jr. fired his weapon across the Rio Grande because he was attacked by people throwing rocks. Hernandez guided illegal immigrants into the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. Last year, a federal judge in Tucson ruled another Mexican family could sue the Border Patrol agent who killed their 16-year-old by firing from Arizona into Nogales, Mexico.