Last March, Ms. Saleh filed a complaint for civil damages she incurred as a result of the Iraq War against George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz, alleging that the planning and waging of the Iraq War constituted the crime of aggression, the "supreme international crime" as defined by the Nuremberg Trials more than sixty years ago. Ms. Saleh has invoked the Alien Tort Statute, a law from 1789 that permits a non US citizen to sue for civil damages for a violation of the "law of nations," in order to press her claim.

In August of last year, the Obama Department of Justice petitioned the court to grant civil immunity to the six defendants. Whether these defendants are in fact immune from civil suit, and whether the lawsuit can proceed, will be the subject of this court's eventual order, which could come down any day.