Appeals court revives lawsuit against Halliburton

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

NEW ORLEANS: A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived lawsuits against military contractors over a deadly ambush that killed civilian truck drivers in Iraq.

The suits filed by truckers and their families accuse Halliburton and a former subsidiary, KBR Inc., of knowingly sending a convoy into a dangerous area where six KBR drivers were killed and several others wounded on April 9, 2004.

A federal judge in Houston threw out the lawsuits in September 2006, saying the judiciary can't second-guess the military's battlefield decisions.

But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed that judge's ruling on Wednesday and sent the three cases back to the lower court for further proceedings.

A three-judge panel from the appeals court said it may be possible to resolve the lawsuits without making a "constitutionally impermissible review of wartime decision-making."

Cases spawned in a war zone involve constitutional issues and "practical considerations" that can prevent them from being resolved in court, Judge Leslie Southwick wrote in the panel's 29-page ruling.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/29/america/KBR-Truckers-Killed.php

[lisa58]

1. great news

[yellerpup]

2. It would be a good idea to impeach Bush/Cheney first

otherwise we will surely be paying for Halliburton's legal bills.

[primavera]

3. Since when is Halliburton "the military"?

Whether or not the judiciary can "second-guess the military's battlefield decisions" is irrelevant: Halliburton isn't the military. Hell, the military has been seconding personnel to contractors precisely so that they won't be subject to military law. You can't have it both ways, saying on one hand that contractors can get away with murder because they aren't part of the military, then saying that their decisions can't be reviewed by the judiciay because they're part of the military. Sounds like the kind of warped reasoning only a BushCo-appointed "judge" could come up with. Glad to see the 5th Circuit was paying attention and reversed it.