Larkin Reynolds is an associate at a D.C. law firm and was a legal fellow at Brookings from 2010 to 2011. Larkin holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as a founding editor of the Harvard National Security Journal and interned with the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and the National Security Division of the Department of Justice. She also has a B.A. in international relations from New York University.
As Josh Gerstein reports over at Politico, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates today granted the Al Maqaleh petitioners’ motion for leave to file amended habeas petitions. Al Maqaleh concerns the habeas petitions of detainees held at the Bagram … Read more »
The D.C. Circuit just issued its very brief decision to vacate and remand Hatim v. Gates (No. 10-5048). Text follows:
PER CURIAM: Saeed Mohammed Saleh Hatim, a Yemeni national, is a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The district
Today we received the public version of the petitioner’s response brief in Almerfedi v. Obama (No. 10-5291), a habeas merits case. In this appeal the government seeks review of Judge Paul Friedman’s sole habeas merits opinion to date, a case … Read more »
Cybersecurity and Cyber Freedom: The Future of Digital Surveillance Technology
Monday, February 14, 2011
1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
Washington, DC
Advances in communications technologies have enabled countless new opportunities for business growth, and have increased the ability of citizens … Read more »
Chairman Mike Rogers included in his remarks from yesterday’s House Intelligence Committee meeting some thoughts about detention authorities. In light of House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon’s comments from a few weeks ago, Chairman Rogers’s remarks suggest that some … Read more »
After receiving both parties’ responses to its order from last week to show cause why a certain district court order from the Hatim case should not be unsealed, today the D.C. Circuit ordered that document be released.
In response, the … Read more »
Today the D.C. Circuit issued its disposition of (Tofiq) Al Bihani v. Obama (Case No. 10-5352) with an order granting the parties’ joint motion for summary affirmance. The parties had agreed in their motion that “to pursue [the] appeal … Read more »
Yesterday the government filed its opposition to the Kiyemba III petition for certiorari.
We mentioned Kiyemba III in this post a few months back, and discussed briefly the question in what was then a newly filed petition: whether the Supreme … Read more »
Today the final public merits brief became available in the D.C. Circuit case of Abdah v. Obama (No. 10-5319). The petitioner in this case is Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif, who won his case before Judge Henry Kennedy in July … Read more »
The Harvard people have kindly put up a video of the National Security and Law Association/National Security Journal event from 4 February. The event was called “Understanding Detention and Predicting Prosecutions: Legal Challenges and Legislative Options Ten Years After 9/11,” … Read more »
Following yesterday’s oral argument in Al Warafi v. Obama, today petitioner’s counsel filed a letter with the D.C. Circuit to clarify the petitioner’s position on an issue that came up during questioning. The court had asked who bears the … Read more »
As Ben highlights in his summary of yesterday’s Al Warafi oral argument, a key issue for the D.C. Circuit in this case is the meaning of the district court’s finding that Al Warafi served as a medic with the Taliban … Read more »
An important order in Khalfih v. Obama snuck under our radar last week. It is a dismissal order in a Guantanamo merits case, granted on the petitioner’s motion. The motion and order follow several postponements of the briefing schedule, but … Read more »
Tomorrow morning the D.C. Circuit will hear oral argument in Al Warafi v. Obama, a Guantánamo merits appeal that challenges Judge Lamberth’s March 2010 decision denying habeas relief to petitioner Mukhtar Yahia Naji Al Warafi. In addition to fairly … Read more »
Today in Hatim v. Obama, the Guantanamo habeas merits case briefed and argued this past November, the D.C. Circuit just issued a most interesting order. It is a show-cause order asking the parties whether they object to documents … Read more »
The respondent’s merits brief recently became available in Ashcroft v. Al-Kidd, the case challenging whether John Ashcroft can be sued in his personal capacity for misuse of the material witness statute (18 U.S.C. § 3144). In December the government–the … Read more »
We just caught wind of this new CRS report on Guantanamo-related legislative actions (both enacted and proposed as of December 9th, 2010), written by Michael John Garcia. A very good survey for those interested.
Briefing on certiorari is now complete in Al Odah v. United States.
In his cert. petition, Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah urged the Supreme Court to review the D.C. Circuit’s ruling that the preponderance of the evidence standard … Read more »
We have new briefs in two Guantanamo habeas appeals–Al Madhwani v. Obama and Al Abdah v. Obama (Al Latif).
The first is the government’s response brief in Al Madhwani, a case in which Musa’ab Omar Al-Madhwani appeals … Read more »
The D.C. Circuit today announced its decision in ACLU v. Dep’t of Defense, a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) case in which the ACLU challenged the government’s withholding of documents relating to the capture, detention, and interrogation of several … Read more »
This morning the Supreme Court denied cert. in Al Adahi v. Obama. Justice Kagan had unsurprisingly recused herself from the case.
In this petition the detainee argued that the D.C. Circuit had improperly altered the “clearly erroneous” standard of review … Read more »
For those who haven’t yet heard, DOJ announced earlier today that David Kris is stepping down as Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.
A few months ago, Bobby wrote a post about one of the Guantanamo habeas petitions currently pending at the Supreme Court, Al Odah v. Obama. Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah, who lost his district court case before Judge … Read more »
Yesterday the D.C. Circuit denied a petition for initial hearing en banc in Abdah v. Obama (No. 05-5224), a case involving the same type of pre-transfer notice orders as those at issue in Kiyemba II. Kiyemba II, readers may … Read more »
Today Judge Leon released his brief unclassified opinion in Razak Ali v. Obama, a Guantanamo habeas merits case. In the order Judge Leon denies the petition of Abdul Razak Ali, an Algerian who also goes by the name Saeed … Read more »
This is interesting. Today in one of the more recent Guantanamo merits appeals, that of Toffiq Nasser Awad Al Bihani, the government and petitioner jointly filed for summary affirmance of the district court’s ruling. The ruling they seek to affirm … Read more »
Today the Department of Defense announced that Farhi Saeed bin Mohammed, a Guantanamo detainee, was transferred back to his native Algeria. According to the DoD press release, the United States “coordinated with the Government of Algeria to ensure the transfer … Read more »
Today the government filed the public version of its appellant’s brief in Almerfedi v. Obama (No. 10-5291), a habeas merits case. In this appeal the government appeals Judge Paul Friedman’s sole habeas merits opinion to date, a case in which … Read more »
A few weeks ago we posted the petitioners’ joint opening brief in a consolidated appeal before the D.C. Circuit that tests whether federal courts retain habeas jurisdiction even after a detainee leaves U.S. custody, and, accordingly, whether a court can … Read more »
Today the D.C. Circuit released the public version of the appellant’s brief in another habeas merits appeal, Abdah v. Obama, No. 10-5319. In this case, the government appeals Judge Henry Kennedy’s July 2010 opinion granting a writ of habeas … Read more »
A few of the habeas merits appeals before the D.C. Circuit were just scheduled for oral argument. Here are the dates and panel assignments:
Al Warafi v. Obama: Oral argument will be held February 7, 2010 before judges Ginsburg, … Read more »
Today the full Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives held a hearing on the Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by WikiLeaks. Below are links to the prepared witness statements.
Abbe D. Lowell
Partner, McDermott Will … Read more »
Last week (and our apologies for the belated update), the D.C. Circuit released the public version of the appellant’s brief in another habeas merits appeal, Al Harbi v. Obama. In this case, the government appeals Judge Henry Kennedy’s May … Read more »
Today, the D.C. Circuit released the public version of the appellant’s brief in Al Madhwani v. Obama. In this case, Musa’ab Omar Al-Madhwani appeals Judge Thomas Hogan’s December 2009 bench ruling and January 2010 opinion affirming his detention, as … Read more »
Last Friday, the Senate passed, by unanimous consent, S. 372, a bill designed to improve the existing whistleblower protection regime. Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) introduced the bill in 2009 to improve statutory protection for government whistleblowers, including national-security … Read more »
Today the D.C. Circuit released, in redacted form, its November order dismissing the government’s appeal in Basardh v. Gates. The brief order contains no reasoning. Basardh was a government appeal from Judge Ellen Huvelle’s March 2009 final judgment and … Read more »
It was a big day for the war-on-terror cases at the Supreme Court yesterday–at least if you are into government briefs. The government filed two important ones. They are:
1) Its brief in opposition to Mohammed Al Adahi’s petition for … Read more »
M.E. “Spike” Bowman, former senior counsel at the FBI and deputy director of the National Counterintelligence Executive, has an interesting piece in the Intelligencer opposing clemency for Jonathan Jay Pollard, the former U.S. naval intelligence analyst convicted of spying for … Read more »
Yesterday, Lyle Denniston posted a recap of all eight currently pending detainee cert. petitions over at SCOTUSblog. Three of those eight cover what we might call transfer and release issues. Petitioners filed the last of those three yesterday, making it … Read more »
Rounding out the public merits briefs in Uthman v. Obama, yesterday the government’s public reply brief became available. Below we link to that brief, the other two public merits briefs, and Judge Henry Kennedy’s district court opinion. Oral argument … Read more »
Opinion here. More to come after we’ve had a chance to digest the full opinion.
UPDATE: Below are selected excerpts from the opinion (footnotes omitted).
Excerpt from introduction:
This is a unique and extraordinary case. Both the threshold and
Today, Omar Khadr and fellow habeas petitioners filed a cert. petition in one of a number of non-merits Guantanamo matters. The petition challenges the D.C. Circuit’s September decision to vacate several 2008 orders issued by Judge Thomas Hogan in the … Read more »
This past week two detainees who lost their habeas merits appeals before the D.C. Circuit filed petitions for certiorari—Ghaleb Nassar Al Bihani and Adham Mohammed Ali Awad.
Broadly speaking, Al Bihani’s challenge involves several arguments about the substantive … Read more »
In light of the recent discussion on Lawfare of WikiLeaks and the Espionage Act, some readers might be interested in Jennifer Elsea’s October 2010 CRS Report on Criminal Prohibitions on the Publication of Classified Defense Information. The report focuses on … Read more »
Today in Uthman v. Obama, a habeas merits appeal before the D.C. Circuit, the detainee’s merits brief became available. The government is the appellant in this case, appealing Judge Henry Kennedy’s decision granting Uthman’s petition for habeas corpus. Readers
Today in Esmail v. Obama, a habeas merits appeal before the D.C. Circuit, the petitioner’s public brief became available. The petitioner, Yasein Khasem Mohammad Esmail, appeals from Judge Henry Kennedy’s April 2010 decision denying his petition and June 2010 … Read more »
Rounding out the public merits briefs in Al Warafi v. Obama, today the petitioner’s public reply brief became available. Below we link to the brief, the other two public merits briefs, and Chief Judge Lamberth’s district court opinion. Oral … Read more »
An interesting new issue has landed at the D.C. Circuit: Whether courts retain habeas jurisdiction even after a detainee leaves U.S. custody.
Last week, two former Guantánamo detainees filed their merits brief in a consolidated case before the appeals court. … Read more »
Today the government made available the public version of its brief in Warafi v. Obama. Readers may recall that this case is the petitioner’s appeal from Chief Judge Royce Lamberth’s March opinion denying Al Warafi’s habeas petition. We posted … Read more »
(by Larkin Reynolds and Benjamin Wittes)
Tomorrow, D.C. Circuit Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, A. Raymond Randolph, and Stephen Williams will hear oral argument in Hatim v. Obama, a habeas merits appeal of some potential importance.
The case is a
Friday, May 24, 2013
Coverage of President Obama’s speech yesterday is plentiful: Here are Peter Baker of the New York Times, Karen DeYoung and Greg Miller of the Washington Post, and Mark Mazzetti of the Times with an analysis of the key points of the speech. Scott Wilson of the Post also provides a rundown of the speech, and cites Ben. The Associated Press reports on lifting the transfer ban on Yemeni detainees, and Colleen McCain Nelson, Adam Entous, and Julia E. Barnes… Read more »
