- Should the United States deny political asylum to a man who, out of fear for his own life, stood by as others were tortured?

Should the United States deny political asylum to a man who, out of fear for his own life, stood by as others were tortured?

Law.com - Nov 8, 2008 - That's the question at the heart of the case Mayer Brown's Andrew Pincus argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday. Pincus describes the case of Eritrean national Daniel Negusie as an "extremely interesting" one that, depending on how the Court rules, could help develop a unified standard for certain kinds of immigration cases: those of asylum-seekers who claim they committed torture or other abuses in their native countries only to save their own lives ...

Government lawyers have taken the position that any asylum candidate who participates in torture can be denied that status -- and that the candidate's willingness to do so is irrelevant. The key precedent is a 1981 case in which the high court revoked the citizenship of a former Nazi prison guard who said his service was involuntary, the New York Times reports. At least one federal appeals court -- the Eighth Circuit -- has ruled otherwise in a separate case, and Pincus says the U.S. needs a unified standard for these cases to address the issue so civilians drafted into civil wars against their will. Read More.