Remember Maher Arar?

The Second Circuit has decided to rehear his case, on its own, without any action by his attorneys. Ed Brayton has this report:

This is extremely unusual. You may remember Maher Arar, the Canadian man who was arrested on a stopover at JFK airport and sent to Syria where he was tortured for nearly a year. With the help of the Center for Constitutional Rights, he sued the U.S. government. The district court dismissed the case based on the state secrets privilege, saying that it could harm national security to even hear the case. A 2nd Circuit appeals court upheld that dismissal in a 2-1 decision.

Now here comes the unexpected part: the 2nd circuit has announced that it will reconsider the case en banc, which means all the judges on the appeals court will hear it and vote on it. What makes this truly surprising is that Arar's attorney didn't ask for it; the court granted the rehearing sua sponte, on its own.

Several of the commenters on this one came to the same conclusion I did: basically, this fish (national security/state secrets) smell many day dead, and they are starting to be more than a little uneasy about it.

It's about friggin' time.