Justice Stevens: U.S. Should Compensate Guantanamo Prisoners Unjustly Held

OTHERWISE: Justice Stevens: U.S. Should Compensate Guantanamo Prisoners Unjustly Held

In a speech to members of the corporate defense bar group Lawyers for Civil Justice retired Justice John Paul Stevens called for compensation for those held at Guantanamo without cause.  Describing Congress's actions to block closure of Guantanamo as "even more irrational than the detention of Japanese citizens" in WW II Stevens calls for a change in legal doctrine.  
While embracing Justice David Souter's dissent in Ashcroft v. Iqbal Stevens called for a change in doctrine.  Government should be liable under respondeat superior for constitutional violations, while affording personal immunity to policy-makers like Attorney General John Ashcroft who were presumably acting from patriotic impulse even if they "encouraged or tolerated improper efforts to obtain information about potential threats".