Spies can’t sue over soured contracts with US

The court dismissed a lawsuit by two former Soviet bloc diplomats who said the CIA induced them to betray their countries during the Cold War in return for a pledge of resettlement in the US and a lifetime income. The CIA refused to live up to the deal after the US-Soviet conflict ended, reports The Washington Post. Chief Justice William Rehnquist said the applicable rule had been laid down in 1876 when the court threw out a suit by a former Union spy seeking his promised pay from the federal government. In that case, the court held that a suit to enforce an espionage contract is inconsistent with the mutual pledge of secrecy that forms a central condition of any such arrangement. Full report in The Washington Post