I’ve written extensively about the important and complex legal questions raised by state-law tort suits against private military contractors, many of which have arisen in the context of suits by victims of torture at Abu Ghraib. It’s against that backdrop that I was disappointed to read yesterday’s 28-page district court decision in al-Shimari v. CACI Premier Technology, Inc., which, on second remand from the Fourth Circuit, relied upon the political question doctrine to dismiss Abu Ghraib victims’ claims against the contractors allegedly responsible for their abuse. As I explain in the post that follows, there are two separate–but equally significant–flaws in Judge Gerald Bruce Lee’s opinion. And although one of those flaws is not remotely Judge Lee’s fault (but rather the result of the Fourth Circuit’s expansive approach to the political question doctrine in military contractor cases), I’m afraid that the second flaw is, and, if sustained on appeal, would dramatically expand the political question doctrine in ways that would be deeply troubling. ...

Read the full piece here.