The appellant and appellee briefs for Alsabri v. Obama, a Guantanamo habeas case in the D.C. Circuit, are now available. You can read Ben’s thoughts on the District Court’s decision here and Bobby’s thoughts on the case here. Judge Urbina wrote the memorandum opinion, which is available here.

Alsabri’s appeals brief is available here.

The statement of issues posed by Alsabri are:

1. Whether the district court committed legal error by failing to consider the evidence as a whole and ignoring important exculpatory evidence.

2. Whether the district court erred by admitting evidence objected to by Petitioner.

3. Whether factual findings by the district court determining that Alsabri was associated with alleged al-Qaida members was “part of” al-Qaida were clearly erroneous.

4. Whether the district court’s decision was based on an overly broad standard of detention under the AUMF.

5. Whether the district court’s discovery and procedural rulings denied Alsabri the opportunity to receive a fair hearing.

Alsabri argues that the district court, despite acknowledging the standard of review for the evidence, did not follow it at critical points. Rather, Alsabri argues (on page 19), that the district court “viewed in isolation snippets from interrogation reports and other documents without viewing such documents in their entirety and without crediting inextricably related exculpatory information that contradicted the court’s findings.”

The government, in its appellee brief, presents two questions for the court to consider:

1. Whether the district court’s findings of fact were clearly erroneous.

2. Whether the district court correctly held that the record, when viewed as a whole, establishes that petitioner was more likely than not a ”part of” al-Qaida, the Taliban, or an associated force.

Oral argument for this case is scheduled for October 24th before Judges Ginsburg, Garland and Kavanagh. We will post an oral argument preview.

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