ACLU sues Jeppesen for Flights

Paul Tomblin wrote:
In a previous article, "Robert Barker" said:

Perhaps they're using this suit to get information under "discovery" to find
out what the CIA is really up to. Then when they get the info, they'll drop
the suit and go after the real perps...


You can't sue the government. You can only hold them accountable at
election time.

Sure you can. Happens every day. But you have to go to Federal Court
and they have to allow you to sue them.

...and they have to allow you to sue them

That has always struck me as so odd. Why would they allow you to sue them?

Jose
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On Jun 3, 7:16 pm, Jose wrote:
...and they have to allow you to sue them

That has always struck me as so odd. Why would they allow you to sue them?

Jose


Under traditional English law, from which our legal system is largely
derived, the government is protected by the doctrine of sovereign
immunity ("The King can do no wrong.") However, most, if not all,
government entites in the US (the fed as well as states, cities,etc)
have waived the doctrine for certain classes of cases, hence "allowing
you to sue them." Rarely does the gov't waive the protection on a
case by case basis. The plaintiff in this case is probably hoping to
fit into some general category of case in which the govt has already
waived its sovereign immunity. That said, I agree that the case
should be without merit.

On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 01:16:49 GMT, Jose
wrote:

...and they have to allow you to sue them

That has always struck me as so odd. Why would they allow you to sue them?

The issue seems to be "standing." Wikipedia has a fairly terse article
with that title. It seems to say that you can sue the government in
Federal Court if you can show the court that you have been injured or
would be injured by something the government has done or wants to do,
but Congress can force the Court to take a case it doesn't want to
hear by passing an act for that specific purpose.

As a layman, I think this is different than ordinary tort law, where
the bar is set much lower.

Don