UPDATE: NINTH CIRCUIT GRANTS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S REQUEST FOR IN BANC HEARING ON JEPPESEN

In Mohamed v. Jeppesen Data Plan the Ninth Circuit reversed a Northern District of California decision upholding the Bush/Obama administrations’ use of extraordinary rendition. Extraordinary rendition is the transportation of individuals from one country to another often for the purpose of torture or to avoid the requirements of extradition treaties.

In Jeppesen five people who were abducted and transported to foreign jails run either by the CIA or foreign governments are suing a CIA contractor for its part in arranging transportation for the five. They claim that they suffered injuries in the form of torture in the foreign jails.

Upon the government’s request the Ninth Circuit has agreed to rehear the matter en banc. A panel of eleven judges will rehear the matter. Six of the twenty-seven judges on the Circuit, including Jay Bybee who while working for the Bush administration wrote a memo supporting extraordinary rendition recused themselves from the vote. A majority of the remainder voted for the en banc hearing. The government claims that if the suit proceeds important government secrets will exposed. The original panel found that since the subject of the suit is not a state secret entered into between the parties the state secret privilege did not apply. But the matter will be reconsidered in the en banc proceedings.