In addition, the Tipton Three and Jamal Udeen Al-Harith filed a suit in 2004 against the US government in "Rasul v. Rumsfeld", challenging its use of torture and religious abuses of detainees. This case was dismissed in April 2009 by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, based on "limited immunity" of government officials; the court ruled that such treatment had not been legally defined at the time as prohibited. In December 2009 the US Supreme Court declined to accept the case for hearing, so the lower court ruling stands.