Opinion ID: 222688
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Bivens Claims by Civilian U.S. Citizens in a War Zone

Text: There can be no doubt that if a federal official, even a military officer, tortured a prisoner in the United States, the tortured prisoner could sue for damages under Bivens. See Carlson v. Green, 446 U.S. 14, 100 S.Ct. 1468, 64 L.Ed.2d 15 (1980) (allowing Bivens claim against prison officials who were deliberately indifferent to prisoner's serious medical needs); Saucier, 533 U.S. 194, 121 S.Ct. 2151 (holding that military police officer was entitled to qualified immunity on civilian's Bivens claim for excessive force, without suggesting that any broader immunity might apply). In this case, however, the defendants assert a broad immunity from suit under Bivens, claiming that civilian U.S. citizens can never pursue a Bivens action against any U.S. military personnel if the constitutional violations occurred in a war zone. We review this question of law de novo. See Thomas v. General Motors Acceptance Corp., 288 F.3d 305, 307 (7th Cir.2002); Wilson v. Libby, 535 F.3d 697, 704 (D.C.Cir.2008). The unprecedented breadth of defendants' argument should not be overlooked. The defendants contend that a Bivens remedy should not be available to U.S. citizens for any constitutional wrong, including torture and even cold-blooded murder, if the wrong occurs in a war zone. The defendants' theory would apply to any soldier or federal official, from the very top of the chain of command to the very bottom. We disagree and conclude that the plaintiffs may proceed with their Bivens claims. We address first the nature of the Bivens remedy and then apply the two-step process the Supreme Court has applied for deciding when a Bivens remedy should be available. The first step is to consider whether there is a sufficient alternative remedy for the alleged constitutional wrong indicating that Congress has intended to supplant Bivens. Here there is no meaningful alternative, and the defendants do not argue otherwise. The second step is to consider whether special factors weigh against recognition of a Bivens remedy under the circumstances. In taking this second step, we explain that the key elements of plaintiffs' claims are well established under Bivens: (a) that civilian claims against military personnel are permissible; (b) that claims based on abuse of prisoners are permissible; (c) that the Constitution governs the relationship between U.S. citizens and their government overseas; and (d) that claims against current and former cabinet officials are permitted. We then conclude that Congress has not indicated any bar to claims under these circumstances. In fact, Congress has acted to provide civil remedies to aliens who are tortured by their governments. It would be extraordinary to find that there is no such remedy for U.S. citizens tortured by their own government. In taking the second step, we then weigh and reject the defendants' arguments and authorities offered to support a special rule that would immunize government officials from Bivens liability for the torture, or worse, of a civilian U.S. citizen in a war zone. Section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, codified as 42 U.S.C. § 1983, authorizes civil lawsuits against state and local government officials for the deprivation of federal constitutional and statutory rights. No analogous statute broadly authorizes similar suits against federal officials. The Supreme Court recognized in Bivens, however, that private citizens have an implied right of action directly under the Constitution to recover damages against federal officials for constitutional violations even where Congress has not conferred such a right by statute. In Bivens, the plaintiff sued federal law enforcement agents for searching his property without a warrant, using excessive force, and arresting him without probable cause. In holding that Bivens was entitled to sue the agents for damages, the Supreme Court observed that where federally protected rights have been invaded, it has been the rule from the beginning that courts will be alert to adjust their remedies so as to grant the necessary relief. Bivens, 403 U.S. at 392, 91 S.Ct. 1999, quoting Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 684, 66 S.Ct. 773, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946). Historically, damages have been regarded as the ordinary remedy for an invasion of personal interests in liberty. Id. at 395, 91 S.Ct. 1999. The Bivens remedy has been designed to prevent constitutional rights from becoming merely precatory. Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228, 242, 99 S.Ct. 2264, 60 L.Ed.2d 846 (1979) (holding that congressional employee could sue member of Congress for sex discrimination in employment in violation of equal protection branch of Fifth Amendment due process right). [12] The Supreme Court's more recent Bivens decisions direct us to exercise caution in recognizing Bivens remedies in new contexts. Bivens does not provide an automatic entitlement to a remedy for a constitutional violation by a federal official, and any freestanding damages remedy for a claimed constitutional violation has to represent a judgment about the best way to implement a constitutional guarantee. Wilkie v. Robbins, 551 U.S. 537, 550, 127 S.Ct. 2588, 168 L.Ed.2d 389 (2007). We have reminded plaintiffs that Bivens is not an automatic gap-filler, available whenever a plaintiff seeks a particular remedy not provided for by any statute or regulation, for a constitutional violation by federal officers. Robinson v. Sherrod, 631 F.3d 839, 842 (7th Cir.2011); see also United States v. Norwood, 602 F.3d 830, 836 (7th Cir.2010). Given this history, as well as the gravity of the claims before us, we proceed cautiously in determining whether to allow Vance and Ertel to pursue a cause of action under Bivens. See Bagola v. Kindt, 131 F.3d 632, 638 (7th Cir.1997). [13] The Supreme Court has developed a two-step test for structuring judgments about whether a particular Bivens claim should be recognized. First, courts must consider whether any alternative, existing process for protecting the interest amounts to a convincing reason for the Judicial Branch to refrain from providing a new and freestanding remedy in damages. Wilkie, 551 U.S. at 550, 127 S.Ct. 2588. Where Congress has provided for an adequate alternative remedy, an implied Bivens remedy is neither necessary nor available. The Court has reached this conclusion in two cases where Congress has established comprehensive and well-defined civil remedies: Social Security benefits, in Schweiker v. Chilicky, 487 U.S. 412, 108 S.Ct. 2460, 101 L.Ed.2d 370 (1988), and federal civil service employment, in Bush v. Lucas, 462 U.S. 367, 103 S.Ct. 2404, 76 L.Ed.2d 648 (1983). If there is no sufficient alternative, the courts must proceed to the second step of the Bivens test, as described in Bush: the federal courts must make the kind of remedial determination that is appropriate for a common-law tribunal, paying particular heed, however, to any special factors counselling hesitation before authorizing a new kind of federal litigation. Bush, 462 U.S. at 378, 103 S.Ct. 2404, quoted in Wilkie, 551 U.S. at 550, 127 S.Ct. 2588.
The first step of the inquiry is to consider whether any alternative, existing process for protecting the interest amounts to a convincing reason for the Judicial Branch to refrain from providing a new and freestanding remedy in damages. Wilkie, 551 U.S. at 550, 127 S.Ct. 2588. The short answer is no. The defendants do not suggest that there is any alternative remedial scheme at all comparable to the Social Security procedures and remedies in Schweiker or the federal civil service procedures and remedies in Bush. While the defendants do not argue that there is an alternative remedy, their special factors arguments invite us to look more broadly for indications of Congressional intent as to whether a Bivens action should be permitted under the circumstances. We do so below in our discussion of special factors in the second step. Although the defendants do not argue that there is an alternative remedy for the plaintiffs, an amicus brief by former Secretaries of Defense and Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff addresses the issue. They argue, as defendants do not, that Congress has created an elaborate and well-structured scheme for remedies and an administrative system that encourages detainees to make complaints. These amici suggest that Vance and Ertel enjoyed the protections of, among others, the Geneva Conventions, the Coalition of Provisional Authority Memorandum #3, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. They argue that the plaintiffs are not entitled to pursue Bivens claims because they could have taken advantage of these protections by complaining about their treatment at the time of their detention. We respect these amici and their distinguished public service. For three reasons, however, we are not persuaded by the argument that a Bivens remedy should be barred because detainees who are being tortured may submit a complaint about their treatment to the very people who are responsible for torturing them. First, if, as plaintiffs allege here, there was a problem stretching to the very top of the chain of command, it would make little sense to limit their recourse to making complaints within that same chain of command. Second, the opportunity to complain offers no actual remedy to those in plaintiffs' position other than possibly to put a stop to the ongoing torture and abuse. A system that might impose discipline or criminal prosecution of the individuals responsible for their treatment does not offer the more familiar remedy of damages. Third, during oral argument, plaintiffs' counsel asserted that Vance and Ertel in fact did complain about their treatment while detained. At least one of the men had face-to-face conversations with the commander of Camp Cropper, who said there was nothing he could do about their treatment. [14] The administrative remedy of inviting detainees to complain about their treatment is also nothing like the alternative remedies that the Supreme Court has found to preclude Bivens remedies in Schweiker and Bush. Those elaborate and comprehensive remedial systems provided meaningful safeguards and remedies established by Congress for victims of official wrongdoing. See Schweiker, 487 U.S. at 425, 108 S.Ct. 2460. The situation before us is very different: Congress has not given civilian U.S. citizens claiming torture by U.S. officials in a war zone anything like the frequent and intense attention it has given the Social Security system and disability review. Id. It has not provided these plaintiffs any remedy. As we have concluded in other Bivens cases, without an explicit indication from Congress, we will not foreclose this right when the statutory remedy is wholly inadequate. Bagola, 131 F.3d at 645. Here, there is no statutory remedy at all. We must proceed to step two of the Bivens inquiry. [15]
The second step of the Bivens inquiry is to make the kind of remedial determination that is appropriate for a common-law tribunal, paying particular heed, however, to any special factors counselling hesitation before authorizing a new kind of federal litigation. Bush, 462 U.S. at 378, 103 S.Ct. 2404, quoted in Wilkie, 551 U.S. at 550, 127 S.Ct. 2588. We must be cautious in addressing the question, but we can draw sound guidance from many precedents addressing closely related problems. In considering this special factors analysis, we note first the breadth of the proposed defense and the narrowness of the asserted claim. We then turn to the Bivens precedents dealing with civilian claims against military personnel, those dealing with claims of abuse of prisoners, and then the more general principles that apply to the Bill of Rights outside of United States territory. We consider then the precedents and arguments relied upon by the defendants, including their invitation to consider Congressional intent in this area.
The defendants' principal Bivens argument is that, because this case arose in a foreign war zone, no Bivens claim should be recognized. This sweeping defense is proposed against a fairly narrow claim. The defendants are arguing for a truly unprecedented degree of immunity from liability for grave constitutional wrongs committed against U.S. citizens. The defense theory would immunize not only the Secretary of Defense but all personnel who actually carried out orders to torture a civilian U.S. citizen. The theory would immunize every enlisted soldier in the war zone and every officer in between. The defense theory would immunize them from civil liability for deliberate torture and even cold-blooded murder of civilian U.S. citizens. The United States courts, and the entire United States government, have never before thought that such immunity is needed for the military to carry out its missions. [16] In asserting this broad defense, defendants have also sought to broaden plaintiffs' claims beyond those they are actually asserting. Contrary to the defense arguments, plaintiffs are not asserting a broad challenge to the detention or interrogation policies of the United States military. Plaintiffs assert that their treatment was actually contrary to explicit statutory law and stated military policy, because they claim they were subjected to interrogation techniques that were not authorized by the applicable Army Field Manual. This case, in other words, does not invite a broad debate over appropriate detention and interrogation techniques in time of war. It presents factual issues over whether there was a deliberate decision to violate the U.S. Constitution and other applicable laws and, if so, who was responsible for that decision. With the broad scope of the proposed defense and the narrow focus of the asserted claim, we turn to precedent for guidance.
The key elements of plaintiffs' claims for constitutional wrongs committed by military officials are all familiar in Bivens jurisprudence, and nothing about their claims would extend Bivens beyond its core premise, which is the deterrence of individual officers who commit unconstitutional acts. Correctional Services Corp. v. Malesko, 534 U.S. 61, 71, 122 S.Ct. 515, 151 L.Ed.2d 456 (2001). That point does not end the special factors debate, but it provides a useful starting point. First, of course, it is well established that Bivens is available to prisoners who assert that they have been abused or mistreated by their federal jailors. In Carlson, 446 U.S. 14, 100 S.Ct. 1468, the Supreme Court reversed dismissal of a complaint in which a deceased prisoner's representative sued for violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, in that case through an alleged deliberate denial of needed medical care. Since Carlson, we have regularly allowed prisoners to pursue their constitutional challenges against federal prison officials as Bivens claims. See, e.g., Bagola, 131 F.3d 632 (concluding that district court properly heard Bivens claim alleging injury as part of prison work program where workers' compensation program did not provide adequate safeguards to protect prisoner's Eighth Amendment rights); Del Raine v. Williford, 32 F.3d 1024 (7th Cir.1994) (recognizing prisoner's Bivens claim alleging that he was forced to live in bitterly cold cell). The fact that the plaintiffs were imprisoned while not even charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime only tends to emphasize how familiar this aspect of their claim is. Second, it is also well established under Bivens that civilians may sue military personnel who violate their constitutional rights. For example, Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 121 S.Ct. 2151, an important but now overruled qualified immunity case, was a Fourth Amendment excessive force claim by a civilian against a military police officer. There was no suggestion that the civilian could not sue the military police officer. Circuit courts have also decided a number of Bivens cases brought by civilians against military personnel. See, e.g., Case v. Milewski, 327 F.3d 564 (7th Cir.2003) (civilian claim against military officers for Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations); Morgan v. United States, 323 F.3d 776 (9th Cir.2003) (civilian claim against military police for search of vehicle); Roman v. Townsend, 224 F.3d 24 (1st Cir.2000) (civilian claim against military police officer and Secretary of the Army for improper arrest and treatment in detention); Applewhite v. United States Air Force, 995 F.2d 997 (10th Cir.1993) (civilian claim against military investigators for unlawful search and removal from military base); see also Willson v. Cagle, 711 F.Supp. 1521, 1526 (N.D.Cal.1988) (concluding that a Bivens action may potentially lie against military officers and civilian employees of the military for protesters injured when a military munitions train collided with them), aff'd mem., 900 F.2d 263 (9th Cir.1990) (affirming denial of qualified immunity); Barrett v. United States, 622 F.Supp. 574 (S.D.N.Y.1985) (allowing civilian's Bivens claim to proceed against military officials for their alleged concealment of their role in the creation and administration of an army chemical warfare experiment in which her father unknowingly served as a test subject), aff'd, 798 F.2d 565 (2d Cir. 1986). While such claims often fail on the merits or for other reasons, the fact that a civilian has sued a military official is not a basis for denying relief under Bivens. [17] Third, when civilian U.S. citizens leave the United States, they take with them their constitutional rights that protect them from their own government. In Reid v. Covert, 354 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 1222, 1 L.Ed.2d 1148 (1957), the Supreme Court held that civilian members of military families could not be tried in courts-martial. Justice Black wrote for a plurality of four Justices: At the beginning we reject the idea that when the United States acts against citizens abroad it can do so free of the Bill of Rights. The United States is entirely a creature of the Constitution. Its power and authority have no other source. It can only act in accordance with all the limitations imposed by the Constitution. When the Government reaches out to punish a citizen who is abroad, the shield which the Bill of Rights and other parts of the Constitution provide to protect his life and liberty should not be stripped away just because he happens to be in another land. This is not a novel concept. To the contrary, it is as old as government. Id. at 5-6, 77 S.Ct. 1222. The general proposition remains vital, as recently reaffirmed in Boumediene, holding that aliens held as combatants at Guantanamo Bay may invoke the writ of habeas corpus to challenge their detention: Even when the United States acts outside its borders, its powers are not `absolute and unlimited' but are subject `to such restrictions as are expressed in the Constitution.' 553 U.S. at 765, 128 S.Ct. 2229, quoting Murphy v. Ramsey, 114 U.S. 15, 44, 5 S.Ct. 747, 29 L.Ed. 47 (1885); see also Munaf, 553 U.S. at 688, 128 S.Ct. 2207 (holding that civilian U.S. citizens held in U.S. military custody in Iraq could seek petition for the writ of habeas corpus in federal district court). Cf. United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 U.S. 259, 110 S.Ct. 1056, 108 L.Ed.2d 222 (1990) (holding that non-resident alien could not invoke Fourth Amendment to challenge search by U.S. officials in foreign country). Fourth, defendant Rumsfeld is being sued for actions taken and decisions made while serving at the highest levels of the United States government. We express no view at this stage as to whether plaintiffs can prove their factual allegations. The former rank of the defendant, however, is not a basis for rejecting the plaintiffs' claims. The Supreme Court has repeatedly entertained Bivens actions against other cabinet members. See, e.g., Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (holding that Attorney General was entitled to qualified immunity, not absolute immunity, from damages suit arising out of national security-related actions); Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727 (concluding that senior aides and advisors of the President of the United States may be entitled to qualified immunity from liability when their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known); Halperin v. Kissinger, 606 F.2d 1192 (D.C.Cir.1979) (concluding that senior Executive Branch officials, including a former president of the United States, were not absolutely immune from suit for damages by citizen alleging an unconstitutional wiretap), aff'd in pertinent part, 452 U.S. 713, 101 S.Ct. 3132, 69 L.Ed.2d 367 (1981); Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978) (concluding that federal officials in the Executive Branch, including the Secretary of Agriculture, ordinarily may be entitled to qualified immunity, not absolute immunity, from constitutional claims).
Although the principal elements of plaintiffs' claims are familiar aspects of Bivens jurisprudence, the claims are challenging because they arose in a U.S. military prison in Iraq during a time of war. As the defendants acknowledged at oral argument, however, neither the Supreme Court nor any other federal circuit court has ever denied civilian U.S. citizens a civil remedy for their alleged torture by U.S. government officials.
The defendants' argument that the courts should stay out of military affairs rests on the assumption that the plaintiffs are mounting a broad challenge to U.S. military and detention policy, raising issues of national security and even foreign relations. If plaintiffs were actually seeking a general review of military actions and policies, as the defense suggests, this case would present different issues. That is not what plaintiffs seek. They are not challenging military policymaking and procedure generally, nor an ongoing military action. They challenge only their particular torture at the hands and direction of U.S. military officials, contrary to statutory provisions and stated military policy, as well as the Constitution. Allowing Bivens liability in these unusual circumstances would not make courts, as defendants suggest, the ultimate arbiters of U.S. military or foreign policy. We are sensitive to the defendants' concerns that the judiciary should not interfere with military decision-making. The Constitution recognizes that core strategic matters of warmaking rest with the Executive. Hamdi, 542 U.S. at 531, 124 S.Ct. 2633. But it is equally clear that [w]hile we accord the greatest respect and consideration to the judgments of military authorities in matters relating to the actual prosecution of a war, and recognize that the scope of that discretion necessarily is wide, it does not infringe on the core role of the military for the courts to exercise their own time-honored and constitutionally mandated roles of reviewing and resolving claims. Id. at 535, 124 S.Ct. 2633; see also Ex parte Quirin, 317 U.S. 1, 19, 63 S.Ct. 2, 87 L.Ed. 3 (1942) (acknowledging that the duty which rests on the courts, in time of war as well as in time of peace, [is] to preserve unimpaired the constitutional safeguards of civil liberty). Recognizing the plaintiffs' claims for such grave  and, we trust, such rare  constitutional wrongs by military officials, in a lawsuit to be heard well after the fact, should not impinge inappropriately on military decision-making. The defendants raise the concern that litigation of the plaintiffs' claims would inevitably require judicial intrusion into matters of national security. See Wilson, 535 F.3d at 710. This may be a serious concern, but at a very pragmatic level, the fact that classified information (from years ago) might be implicated at some point in this litigation is not a bar to allowing it to go forward at this stage. If classified information becomes a problem, the law provides tools to deal with it. As Judge Calabresi explained in Arar v. Ashcroft , the state-secrets privilege is the appropriate tool by which state secrets are protected: Denying a Bivens remedy because state secrets might be revealed is a bit like denying a criminal trial for fear that a juror might be intimidated: it allows a risk, that the law is already at great pains to eliminate, to negate entirely substantial rights and procedures. 585 F.3d at 635 (Calabresi, J., dissenting). As the majority in Arar acknowledged, courts can  with difficulty and resourcefulness  consider state secrets and even reexamine judgments made in the foreign affairs context when they must, that is, when there is an unflagging duty to exercise our jurisdiction. Id. at 575-76. Fear of the judiciary intruding into national security should not prevent us from recognizing a remedy at this stage, in this case. Courts reviewing claims of torture in violation of statutes such as the Detainee Treatment Act or in violation of the Fifth Amendment do not endanger the separation of powers, but instead reinforce the complementary roles played by the three branches of our government. See, e.g., Boumediene, 553 U.S. at 742, 128 S.Ct. 2229 (The Framers' inherent distrust of governmental power was the driving force behind the constitutional plan that allocated powers among three independent branches. This design serves not only to make Government accountable but also to secure individual liberty.); see also Hamdi, 542 U.S. at 536-37, 124 S.Ct. 2633 (emphasizing, with respect to challenges to the factual basis of a citizen's detention, that it would turn our system of checks and balances on its head to suggest that a citizen could not make his way to court with a challenge to ... his detention by his Government, simply because the Executive opposes making available such a challenge). The defendants' broad argument that the judiciary should stay out of all matters implicating national security is too broad to be convincing. Our dissenting colleague suggests that given the significant pitfalls of judicial entanglement in military decisionmaking, it must be Congress, not the courts, that extends the remedy and defines its limits. Dissent at 630. We respectfully disagree. As the Supreme Court said in Hamdi: Whatever power the United States Constitution envisions for the Executive ... in times of conflict, it most assuredly envisions a role for all three branches when individual liberties are at stake. 542 U.S. at 536, 124 S.Ct. 2633. Recent habeas corpus cases reinforce our understanding that federal courts have a role to play in safeguarding citizens' rights, even in times of war. The Hamdi Court, examining a claim by an American citizen detained on U.S. soil as an enemy combatant, held that the detainee was entitled to contest the basis for his detention. What are the allowable limits of military discretion, and whether or not they have been overstepped in a particular case, are judicial questions. Hamdi, 542 U.S. at 535, 124 S.Ct. 2633, quoting Sterling v. Constantin, 287 U.S. 378, 401, 53 S.Ct. 190, 77 L.Ed. 375 (1932). The Munaf Court later made clear that the habeas statute extends to American citizens held overseas by American forces. Munaf, 553 U.S. at 680, 128 S.Ct. 2207. Thus, courts may enforce the habeas rights of U.S. citizens in U.S. military custody in Iraq, though in Munaf itself, relief was denied because Iraq had a sovereign right to criminally prosecute the petitioners. Id. at 694-95, 128 S.Ct. 2207. Most recently, in Boumediene, the Supreme Court held that aliens detained as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay were entitled to seek a writ of habeas corpus to challenge their detention and that the Detainee Treatment Act review procedures were an inadequate alternative to habeas corpus. 553 U.S. at 795, 128 S.Ct. 2229. This line of cases undermines the defendants' broad insistence that the judiciary must stay out of all matters concerning wartime detention and interrogation issues. [18] The fact that the plaintiffs are U.S. citizens is a key consideration here as we weigh whether a Bivens action may proceed. [19] As the Court in Reid concluded: When the Government reaches out to punish a citizen who is abroad, the shield which the Bill of Rights and other parts of the Constitution provide to protect his life and liberty should not be stripped away just because he happens to be in another land. Reid, 354 U.S. at 6, 77 S.Ct. 1222 (plurality opinion of Black, J.); see also Kar v. Rumsfeld, 580 F.Supp.2d 80, 83 (D.D.C.2008) (finding that the Fourth and Fifth Amendments certainly protect U.S. citizens detained in the course of hostilities in Iraq). The defendants cite a number of cases, both habeas corpus and Bivens cases, for the proposition that the judiciary should not create damages remedies in the context of foreign affairs. Almost all of these were suits by aliens, not U.S. citizens, detained and suspected of terrorism ties. For example, the defendants cite Arar v. Ashcroft , where the sharply divided Second Circuit declined to recognize an alien's Bivens claim for extraordinary rendition because several related special factors counseled hesitation. 585 F.3d at 575-81. The plaintiff in Arar was an alien with Syrian and Canadian citizenship who challenged an alleged U.S. presidential policy allowing extraordinary rendition and torture by foreign governments. The majority found that allowing the alien plaintiff to proceed with a Bivens claim would have the natural tendency to affect diplomacy, foreign policy, and the security of the nation, and that fact counsels hesitation. Id. at 574. More recently, the D.C. Circuit held that Afghan and Iraqi citizens who alleged that they were tortured in U.S. custody in those nations could not pursue Bivens claims against U.S. officials, including Secretary Rumsfeld. Ali v. Rumsfeld, 649 F.3d 762 (D.C.Cir.2011). [20] We are fully aware that prohibitions against torture are matters of international law as well as United States law, and that those prohibitions reflect basic and universal human rights. The question of remedies, however, has more room for nuance, and the Second Circuit majority in Arar was concerned in large part about the diplomatic and foreign policy consequences of hearing Arar's claims. 585 F.3d at 574; see also Arar, 585 F.3d at 603 (Sack, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (concluding that security and secrecy concerns should not be considered special factors counseling hesitation, but should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis employing the state-secrets doctrine). If the U.S. government harms citizens of other nations, they can turn to their home governments to stand up for their rights. These considerations are simply not present in this lawsuit by two U.S. citizens challenging their alleged illegal torture by their own government. In a series of cases, the D.C. Circuit has rejected efforts by aliens to use Bivens to seek relief from U.S. foreign policy and military actions overseas. In Sanchez-Espinoza v. Reagan, 770 F.2d 202 (D.C.Cir. 1985), members of the U.S. Congress and citizens of Nicaragua brought claims, including Bivens claims, against U.S. government officials for their alleged support of forces bearing arms in Nicaragua. In rejecting the obvious invitation to the federal courts to make foreign policy, the court explained: we think that as a general matter the danger of foreign citizens' using the courts in situations such as this to obstruct the foreign policy of our government is sufficiently acute that we must leave to Congress the judgment whether a damage remedy should exist. 770 F.2d at 209. The D.C. Circuit followed that reasoning in Rasul v. Myers, 563 F.3d 527, 530 (D.C.Cir.2009) ( Rasul II ), where the court relied on the alien citizenship of the plaintiffs in granting the defendants qualified immunity, finding that [n]o reasonable government official would have been on notice that [alien] plaintiffs had any Fifth Amendment or Eighth Amendments rights. Because the Rasul II court found that the defendants were immune from suit, it reached the broader Bivens issue only in a footnote, concluding in the alternative that the plaintiffs' Bivens claims were foreclosed by special factors. Id. at 532 n. 5, citing Judge Brown's concurrence in Rasul v. Myers, 512 F.3d 644, 672-73 ( Rasul I ) (concluding that special factors foreclose a Bivens claim in the context of treatment and interrogation of enemy combatant detainees), vacated, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 763, 172 L.Ed.2d 753 (2008). In Rasul I, Judge Brown had written: Treatment of detainees is inexorably linked to our effort to prevail in the terrorists' war against us, including our ability to work with foreign governments in capturing and detaining known and potential terrorists. Judicial involvement in this delicate area could undermine these military and diplomatic efforts and lead to embarrassment of our government abroad. 512 F.3d at 673 (Brown, J., concurring) (quotation marks omitted); see also Al-Zahrani v. Rumsfeld, 684 F.Supp.2d 103, 112 (D.D.C.2010), appeal pending, No. 10-5393 (D.C.Cir.) (relying on Rasul II, finding that [t]he D.C. Circuit's conclusion that special factors counsel against the judiciary's involvement in the treatment of detainees held at Guantanamo binds this Court and forecloses it from creating a Bivens remedy for plaintiffs here). Judge Brown's reasoning in Rasul cannot be extended to bar claims by U.S. citizens who have not been charged with, let alone convicted of, any terrorist activity. Most recently, in Ali v. Rumsfeld , the D.C. Circuit followed Rasul II and Sanchez-Espinoza to hold that Iraqi and Afghan citizens detained abroad in U.S. military custody could not sue under Bivens for claims of torture. The court's analysis of special factors under Bivens emphasized the plaintiffs' status as aliens. 649 F.3d at 769-75. The D.C. Circuit's opinions in Ali, Rasul II, and Sanchez-Espinoza do not even hint that their reasoning would extend to bar Bivens claims by civilian U.S. citizens who can prove that their own government tortured them. As our dissenting colleague points out, there is some overlap in the special factors analysis that applied in the cases brought by aliens in Ali and Arar, all of whom alleged they were tortured, either directly by the U.S. government or as a result of a U.S. practice of extraordinary rendition. Those cases presented very disturbing allegations about our government, especially in view of our nation's long commitment to comply with international law and our leadership in opposing torture worldwide. We acknowledge that those cases presented difficult issues in applying the Bivens special factors analysis. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Ali and Arar, however, we should not let the difficulty of those cases lead us to lose sight of the fundamentally different situation posed by the claims of civilian U.S. citizens in this case. These plaintiffs have alleged a grave breach of our most basic social compact  between We the People and the government we created in our Constitution. As difficult as torture claims by aliens may be, we repeat that nothing in Ali or Arar, or in the opinions in Rasul II or Sanchez-Espinoza, indicates that those courts were willing to extend the unprecedented immunity that defendants and the dissent advocate here, for claims that our government tortured its own citizens.
The defendants do not argue that Congress has created an alternative remedy that forecloses a Bivens remedy. They argue, though, that because Congress has passed numerous pieces of legislation regarding detainee treatment, none of which provide detainees with a statutory private right of action, the courts should not recognize a Bivens remedy for civilian U.S. citizens tortured in military custody in a war zone. See, e.g., Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, 10 U.S.C. § 801, stat. note § 1092; Military Commissions Act of 2006, Pub.L. No. 109-366, 120 Stat. 2600, 2635, codified at 28 U.S.C. § 2241(e)(2). Congress has also addressed detention standards in a criminal statute without providing for a private civil right of action. See 10 U.S.C. § 893 (a person guilty of cruelty and maltreatment of person subject to his orders shall be punished as a court-martial may direct). Congress has even gone so far as to criminalize overseas torture, see 18 U.S.C. § 2340A, but explicitly provided that it was not creating a new civil right of action. See 18 U.S.C. § 2340B (Nothing in this chapter shall be construed ... as creating any substantive or procedural right enforceable by law by any party in any civil proceeding.). From Congress' close attention to detainee treatment without creating a civil right of action, defendants infer that a Bivens remedy is not appropriate here. We disagree. Bivens is a well-known part of the legal landscape, so it is significant that Congress has taken no steps to foreclose a citizen's use of Bivens. We can assume that Congress was aware that Bivens might apply when it enacted legislation relevant to detainee treatment. In fact, when Congress enacted the Detainee Treatment Act, it opted to regulate  not prohibit  civil damages claims against military officials accused of torturing aliens suspected of terrorism. Congress created a good faith defense in civil and criminal cases for officials who believed that their actions were legal and authorized by the U.S. government: In any civil action or criminal prosecution against an officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the United States Government [for engaging in practices involving detention and interrogation of alien detainees suspected of terrorism] it shall be a defense that such officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent did not know that the practices were unlawful and a person of ordinary sense and understanding would not know the practices were unlawful.... Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or extinguish any defense or protection otherwise available to any person or entity from suit, civil or criminal liability, or damages, or to provide immunity from prosecution for any criminal offense by the proper authorities. 42 U.S.C. § 2000dd-1(a). [21] This express but limited defense against civil claims by alien detainees suspected of terrorism is a strong indication that Congress has not closed the door on judicial remedies that are otherwise available, certainly for U.S. citizens, even though it chose not to wrestle with just what those remedies might be. Accepting defendants' invitation to consider other indications of Congressional intent, we find other powerful evidence that weighs heavily in favor of recognizing a judicial remedy here. Congress has enacted laws that provide civil remedies under U.S. law for foreign citizens who are tortured by their governments. The plaintiffs cite the Torture Victim Protection Act and the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, which was part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, to show that Congress and the American people have always stood against torture, and Congress has seen litigation against officials of other nations as an important tool to implement America's foreign policy against torture. Pl. Br. at 30. Where Congress has authorized such claims by non-citizen victims of torture by foreign governments, it would be startling if United States law did not provide a judicial remedy for U.S. citizens alleging torture by their own government. It would be difficult to reconcile the law of nations' prohibition against torture and the remedies United States law provides to aliens tortured by their governments with a decision not to provide these citizen-plaintiffs a civil remedy if they can prove their allegations. The defendants have not attempted to do so. As the Second Circuit held in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, deliberate torture perpetrated under color of official authority violates universally accepted norms of the international law of human rights, regardless of the nationality of the parties. 630 F.2d 876, 878 (2d Cir.1980) (holding that alien victims of torture in Paraguay could sue responsible Paraguayan official in U.S. district court under Alien Tort Statute for damages for violation of law of nations); see also Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692, 124 S.Ct. 2739, 159 L.Ed.2d 718 (2004) (describing the history of the Alien Tort Statute and holding that district courts may recognize private causes of action for some violations of the law of nations). Most relevant, though, is the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991, Pub.L. 102-256, codified as a note to the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350. Section 2(a) of that Act provides a cause of action for civil damages against a person who, under actual or apparent authority, or color of law, of any foreign nation, subjects another person to torture or extrajudicial killing. Section 2(b) requires U.S. courts to decline to hear such claims if the claimant has not exhausted adequate and available remedies in the place where the conduct occurred. Under the Torture Victim Protection Act, if an alien has been tortured by her own government, and if that foreign government has denied her a civil remedy, then a U.S. court could hear the case against a defendant found in the U.S. It would be extraordinary  one might even say hypocritical  for the United States to refuse to hear similar claims by a U.S. citizen against officials of his own government. And Bivens provides the only available remedy. To illustrate the anomalous result the defendants seek, consider the possibility that another country has enacted its own law identical to the U.S. Torture Victim Protection Act. If we accepted defendants' argument in this case and held there is no civil remedy available, then there would be no adequate and available remedies in the place where the conduct occurred (a U.S. military base). If Secretary Rumsfeld could be found visiting such a country with its own TVPA (so he could be served with process), Vance and Ertel could sue him in that country under its torture victim protection law because U.S. law would provide no remedy. That would be a very odd result. Surely the Congress that enacted the Torture Victim Protection Act would rather have such claims against U.S. officials heard in U.S. courts. [22] In sum, we are not convinced by the defendants' argument that special factors preclude recognition of a Bivens remedy in this case. A couple of final concerns remain in our Bivens analysis. The defendants argue that, under the plaintiffs' approach, any military action could result in a Bivens claim if the action were characterized as a violation of some government policy. The defendants argue, for example, that this could include a plaintiff seeking damages from the Secretary of Defense for an air strike in a location beyond the bounds of congressional authorization to wage war. The argument is not convincing. Today we decide only the narrow question presented by the extraordinary allegations now before us. The Bivens case law weighs in favor of allowing plaintiffs, U.S. citizens, to proceed with their claims that while they were in U.S. military custody, they were tortured by U.S. government officials. Our decision today opens up the courts to other claims like this, but we hope and expect that allegations of this nature will be exceedingly rare. We make no broader holding about whether other future claims about violations of government policy would be cognizable under Bivens. A difficult related question is whether recognizing the plaintiffs' Bivens claim in this instance creates a special category of constitutional rights that would still be enforceable in a war zone and, if so, what the limits are of such a category. While the plaintiffs are arguing, for example, that Fifth Amendment substantive due process rights apply to U.S. citizens detained by the U.S. military in a war zone, this appeal presents no issue regarding the fact of plaintiffs' detention or some aspects of that detention that would not have passed constitutional muster if the detention had been subject to civilian processes in the United States. [23] The amicus brief by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Project on Government Oversight, and the Government Accountability Project in support of the plaintiffs also raises important questions about what remedies U.S. citizen-journalists have in war zones. The concerns of these amici were manifest in Kar. In that case, a U.S. citizen alleges that he went to Iraq to make a historical documentary film, was arrested by Iraqi authorities, and then was transferred to U.S. authorities and detained at Camp Cropper for two months. Although recognizing that the Fourth and Fifth Amendments certainly protect U.S. citizens detained in the course of hostilities in Iraq, see 580 F.Supp.2d at 83, the district judge found that the defendants had not violated any clearly established constitutional rights: As weak as the government's authority is, Kar has provided none at all  no precedent that clearly establishes the right of a U.S. citizen to a prompt probable cause hearing when detained in a war zone. Any attempt to apply the two-day requirement from [ County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, 500 U.S. 44, 111 S.Ct. 1661, 114 L.Ed.2d 49 (1991)] or the seven-day requirement from the Patriot Act to Kar's circumstances ignores the differences between detention on U.S. soil and detention in hostile territory. Id. at 85. We are inclined to agree with that observation, and indeed, many broader questions remain about the application in a war zone of constitutional safeguards we have developed over time to protect U.S. citizens' rights. [24] There may be difficult questions ahead, but our job is to deal with those questions. We should not let the prospect of difficult questions in the future cause us to close the courthouse doors to the serious claims presented by these allegations. In rejecting the defendants' special factors arguments for a complete and unprecedented civil immunity for torture of U.S. citizens, we have tried to apply the caution required in applying Bivens. But caution is also required from the opposing perspective. Our courts have a long history  more than 200 years  of providing damages remedies for those whose rights are violated by our government, including our military. See Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1948, citing Dunlop v. Munroe, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 242, 268, 3 L.Ed. 329 (1812) (in case against postmaster, federal official's liability will only result from his own neglect in not properly superintending the discharge of his subordinates' duties); Bivens, 403 U.S. at 395-97, 91 S.Ct. 1999 (collecting cases showing that damages against government officials are historically the remedy for invasion of personal interests in liberty, and quoting Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803): The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury.); Little v. Barreme, 6 U.S. (2 Cranch) 170, 178-79, 2 L.Ed. 243 (1804) (holding that commander of a warship was answerable in damages to the owner of a neutral vessel seized pursuant to orders from President but in violation of statute). If we were to accept the defendants' invitation to recognize the broad and unprecedented immunity they seek, then the judicial branch  which is charged with enforcing constitutional rights  would be leaving our citizens defenseless to serious abuse or worse by another branch of their own government. We recognize that wrongdoers in the military would still be subject to criminal prosecution within the military itself. Relying solely on the military to police its own treatment of civilians, however, would amount to an extraordinary abdication of our government's checks and balances that preserve Americans' liberty. The district court correctly allowed plaintiffs to proceed with their Bivens claims for torture.