Some excellent commentary coming from south of the 49th following the Supreme Court of the United State’s refusal to hear Maher Arar’s appeal of the dismissal of his civil suit against U.S. official complicit in his torture at the hands of the Syrians.  (Hat tip to Roch Tasse at the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group for both of these articles.)

First, a scathing analysis on the conduct of Obama’s Department of Justice, from the always terrific Scott Horton over at Harper’s Magazine.  A teaser:

Congratulations are in order to the Obama Justice Department—it seems on the verge of establishing the legal proposition that officers of the American executive are free to torture and commit other heinous crimes with complete impunity.

The New York Times also issued an editorial earlier this week, calling the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case “disgraceful” and stating that there is “no excuse for the Obama administration’s conduct” of the case.

Go forth and read!

UPDATE Here’s another good piece of commentary, from Dahlia Lithwick (one of our favourite SCOTUS observers).