Supremes Won’t Hear CIA Torture Suit

The Supreme Court declined today without comment to hear the case of a German citizen who claims he was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA. Lower courts had dismissed Khaled el-Masri's case on the grounds that a trial would expose state secrets. German authorities have said the US acknowledged abducting Masri, but American authorities haven’t admitted any role in the incident.

Masri says he was kidnapped in Macedonia in December 2003, abused by the CIA in Afghanistan, and then dumped on a Albanian hillside in May 2004, the Washington Post reports. The ACLU pushed his case, arguing that the administration is abusing state secrets privileges. For his part, the solicitor general called the suit an “extravagant request.”