So I am sure that Holder and Obama will appeal in an attempt to overturn the ruling.

The 9^th circuit court has ruled that John Ashcroft can be sued personally for arresting and detaining people under the material witness statutes.

Basically, prosecutors have a blanket immunity regarding whether or not they choose to prosecute someone, but police, and prosecutors and attorneys general, who direct that someone be arrested and detained are subject to the same sort of personal liability as a cop who engages in false arrests, as the 3 judge panel notes:

“Framers of our Constitution would have disapproved of the arrest, detention, and harsh confinement of a United States citizen as a ‘material witness’ under the circumstances, and for the immediate purpose alleged, in al-Kidd’s complaint. Sadly, however, even now, more than 217 years after the ratification of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, some confidently assert that the government has the power to arrest and detain or restrict American citizens for months on end, in sometimes primitive conditions, not because there is evidence that they have committed a crime, but merely because the government wishes to investigate them for possible wrongdoing, or to prevent them from having contact with others in the outside world. We find this to be repugnant to the Constitution, and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history.”

Note that everyone else who was originally sued over this has settled, so here’s hoping that Abdullah al-Kidd, impoverishes John Ashcroft, because, under Obama and Holder, Bush and His Evil Minions^™ will never see the inside of a jail cell.