Sotomayor was one of the appeals judges to hear the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was suing the US government over his extraordinary rendition in 2002. Suspected wrongly of being a terrorist, Arar was detained at JFK, then flown to Syria, where he underwent 10 months and 10 days of torture.
Unfortinately, the Obama Administration has embraced the state-secrets claims pioneered by the Bush administration, arguing that his suit would reveal too much confidential information. As the New York Times noted in February, “In Mr. Arar’s case, the secrecy claims are even more baseless in light of the widespread publicity about his treatment, and the published findings by the Canadians.”
This clip features Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor grilling a Justice Department lawyer. This actually took place in November 2008, tobefore Obama’s inauguration. She cuts to the chase very quickly…