Your Monday Morning Iqbal Update

I know I know, Iqbal is so 2009, almost as old as that Sony Playstation Mike Tein held up in front of Magistrate Judge Turnoff the other day.

Still, some judges continue to cite to it, as BLT notes:

A federal judge in Illinois refused to dismiss a lawsuit against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by two Americans who claimed they were detained and interrogated in Iraq.

David Vance and Nathan Ertel, who traveled to Iraq in 2005 to work for a security firm, filed suit against Rumsfeld and the U.S. government alleging that they were taken into custody and interrogated by the military because of suspicion that their company was providing arms to insurgents. They claim they were placed in cages, strip searched and questioned using “physically and mentally coercive tactics,” before they were finally released weeks later.

Rumsfeld filed a motion to dismiss. However, Judge Wayne Anderson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois today allowed one claim against him to go forward, finding the two contractors pleaded enough details to implicate the former secretary. See the opinion here.

Placed in cages, strip searched and questioned using "physically and mentally coercive tactics"?

I don't like to repeat myself, but again -- I've seen worse in the bounce house at Chucky Cheese.

How did Judge Anderson handle this meshuga "plausibility" standard:

“Iqbal undoubtedly requires vigilance on our part to ensure that claims which do not state a plausible claim for relief are not allowed to occupy the time of high-ranking government officials. It is not, however, a categorical bar on claims against these officials. When a plaintiff presents well-pleaded factual allegations sufficient to raise a right to relief above a speculative level, that plaintiff is entitled to have his claim survive a motion to dismiss even if one of the defendants is a high-ranking government official.”

Let me translate this for all you burnouts out there in radioland:

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked.

Finally, didn't Kate Winslet look amazing yesterday?