Supreme Court Won't Consider Iraq Lawsuit Against Contractors

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to a lower-court ruling that said two private U.S. military contractors could not be sued for allegedly abusing Iraqis who were detained and interrogated at the Abu Ghraib prison.

A group of Iraqi plaintiffs alleged that they or their relatives were beaten, electrocuted, raped and subjected to other kinds of abuse by private contractors working as interpreters and interrogators at Abu Ghraib.

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled 2-1 in 2009 that wartime considerations required the lawsuits against CACI International Inc. (CACI) and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc.'s (LLL) Titan unit to be thrown out.

The majority said such lawsuits can't go forward when a private contractor is integrated into combatant activities over which the military retains command authority. The dissenting judge said no law barred suits against contractors who aren't soldiers.

The Supreme Court, without comment, let the lower-court ruling stand.

Members of the military faced court-martial proceedings for events at Abu Ghraib, but no private contractors faced criminal charges.

The case is Saleh v. Titan Corp., 09-1313.

   -By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222; 
   [e-mail]