A federal appeals court threw out a lawsuit last Friday filed by more than 200 Iraqis claiming they were tortured at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison by interrogators hired by defense contractor CACI International Inc. In a 2-1 decision, the DC Court of Appeals ruled that the company was protected by laws barring suits filed as the result of military activities during the Iraq war.

Judge Laurence Silberman, who wrote the majority opinion, was named to the federal bench in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan, and in 2008 he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. Silverman was supported in his opinion by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who worked for Bush in the White House for five years as a counsel to the president and a staff assistant to the president before being appointed to a federal judgeship by his boss.