Judge David Sentelle wrote today’s majority opinion in this long-running habeas case, in which Mukhtar Yahia Naji Al Warafi had claimed (among other things) that even if he was a Taliban member, he served the group as a permanent medic … Read more »
Lawyers for Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah, a Yemeni detained at Guantanamo, yesterday petitioned the D.C. Circuit for a writ of mandamus. The gist: Abdullah wants the circuit court to force the district court decide a long-pending motion of his.… Read more »
In other habeas news, detainee Obaydullah has noted his appeal to the D.C. Circuit.
Obaydullah had filed a motion for relief from judgment. In it, he cited newly discovered evidence that—in his view—established his innocence. But, as Alan explained in … Read more »
Remember the Guantanamo detention case of Hentif v. Obama?
In 2011, the government convinced the district court to reject Fadhel Hussein Saleh Hentif’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. In July of 2012, the district judge noted, on … Read more »
That’s the gist of this order, issued today by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit, in Rimi v. Obama.
The detainee, who had been transferred from Guantanamo to Libya in 2006, unsuccessfully sought habeas relief from the … Read more »
About six weeks ago, I flagged the (in my view, alarming) filing by the government of a notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit in the Guantanamo MOU/continuing access-to-counsel litigation. Late last night, the government filed this unopposed motion … Read more »
The D.C. Circuit has handed down its latest Guantanamo habeas case, Khairkhwa v. Obama. The brief, unanimous opinion by Senior Judge A. Raymond Randolph for himself and Judges Judith Rogers and Merrick Garland contains no surprises. As expected, it … Read more »
Looks like the D.C. Circuit is going to get another crack at Bagram jurisdiction. Maqaleh II, decided by the district court in mid-October, is headed up. Good luck with that!
The government yesterday filed a reply in support of its renewed motion for summary affirmance in Rimi et al. v. Obama et al., a case pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
In 2006 … Read more »
Courtesy of Todd Ruger from the National Law Journal, it appears that D.C. Circuit Chief Judge David Sentelle will be taking senior status as of February 12, 2013. That will reduce to seven the total number of active D.C. … Read more »
In papers filed Friday, the government renewed its request for a summary affirmance, and opposed an attempt by habeas petitioner Mohammed Rimi to remand his appeal to the district court.
Rimi was transferred from Guantanamo to Libya in 2006. … Read more »
A sharply-divide en banc Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has handed down its opinion in Vance v. Rumsefeld, reversing a panel decision to allow a suit by American citizens alleging detention and torture by U.S. forces in Iraq. Writing … Read more »
The government has filed its its opening brief in the Second Circuit Hedges appeal. The introduction reads:
This suit is brought by a handful of journalists and activists who, based on their stated activities, are in no danger whatsoever of
Andrew Kent of Fordham University School of Law has a challenging new essay out on whether Boumediene rights expire–arguing provocatively that they do, notwithstanding government concessions in habeas litigation that they do not. I asked him to to summarize the … Read more »
[Update (11:41 a.m. EDT)]: The always reliable Josh Gerstein already had a story up on this late last night over @ Politico, which reports that an “administration official” suggested that “Friday’s filings were made in order to keep open … Read more »
Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit filed a per curiam order in the case of Bahlul v. United States, ordering the parties to file briefs addressing the implications of the court’s decision in … Read more »
I somehow missed the D.C. Circuit habeas appeal of Guantanamo detainee Abdul Qader Ahmen Hussein, whose case is to be argued today. It appeals this decision from a year ago by U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton. The oral argument will … Read more »
The D.C. Circuit Court’s opinion that we’ve all been waiting for has come down. The D.C. Circuit has vacated Hamdan’s conviction for material support for terrorism in the Military Commission and reversed the Court of Military Commission Review’s judgment. The … Read more »
Earlier today, lawyers for Abdullah Bin Omar Al-Hajji moved to dismiss his appeal to the D.C. Circuit voluntarily, and without prejudice. The government does not oppose the former Guantanamo detainee’s request.
Al-Hajji’s, you may recall, was a constructive custody/collateral harms … Read more »
This slipped by me on Friday, when I was in Cambridge plotting the next phase of Lawfare‘s expansion. The D.C. Circuit has issued an unredacted opinion in this case, Ameziane v. Obama, which actually came down in … Read more »
Yesterday, we promised to be in attendance during today’s argument session in Khairkhwa v. Obama
And this morning, yours truly sat through two standard-issue D.C. arguments—one, a criminal appeal challenging jury instructions, and another, an electrifying discussion of National Labor … Read more »
A reminder that tomorrow morning will see argument before the D.C. Circuit in the case of Khairkhwa v. Obama. In short, the case concerns a Taliban functionary who claims to have played a civilian—not at all military—role. (Background is … Read more »
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has has just stayed Judge Katherine Forrest’s decision in Hedges:
For the following reasons, we conclude that the public interest weighs in favor of granting the government’s motion for a stay. First, in
The D.C. Circuit has handed down procedural orders in two Guantanamo detention cases.
The first grants a joint motion regarding Friday’s oral argument in Khairkhwa v. Obama. The argument session will be open to the public, with a classified … Read more »
I had to restrain myself this morning at the D.C. Circuit from interrupting proceedings with an emergency request for an on-the-spot ruling in Wittes v. FAA—a case which has admittedly does not exist—that the agency’s action with respect to … Read more »
Obaydullah, a Guantanamo detainee, today asked the D.C. Circuit to take up his case once more.
A three judge panel of that court earlier affirmed the denial of Obaydullah’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. But the panel’s … Read more »
To the list of upcoming habeas cases in the court of appeals, add these: first, Khairkhwa v. Obama, which is set for argument on October 5th; and second, Hussain v. Obama, which is set for argument on October 18th.… Read more »
The D.C. Circuit will hear its second round of arguments in the case of Mukhtar Yahia Naji Al Warafi on September 21. Warafi is an interesting Guantanamo habeas case with an interesting and unique history. Judge Royce Lamberth first … Read more »
I’m happy to report that I’ve recently completed drafting an article that has been much on my mind for the past few years. Beyond the Battlefield, Beyond al Qaeda: The Destabilizing Legal Architecture of Counterterrorism (Michigan Law Review, forthcoming 2013) … Read more »
The government has just posted a memorandum from March 12, 1945 in the Bahlul docket concerning the question of whether participation in a conspiracy to commit an offense against the law of war is punishable in a military commission.
The … Read more »
Last week, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Henderson and Brown handed down a per curiam order in response to the government’s motion to remand Ravil Mingazov’s case to the District Court for consideration of his motion there under Rule … Read more »
Here’s the opinion–from a panel consisting of Judges Merrick Garland and Karen LeCraft Henderson and Chief Judge David Sentelle. The opinion denying Obaydullah’s Guantanamo habeas appeal is a per curiam, though Judge Sentelle dissents on grounds that the … Read more »
The Harvard Law Review has published this article on the Latif decision as its presumption of regularity by a student named Al-Amyn Sumar. The article is dated in two important respects–first, that it argues for cert that was denied just … Read more »
Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman Al Bahlul has filed his reply brief in his appeal of his military commission conviction in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. You’ll recall that Al Bahul requested his appeal to … Read more »
Just a quick follow-up on my post of this morning. A correspondent points out to me that on David Remes’s definition of “prevailing,” Boumediene itself should be counted as a government win. After all, the Supreme Court in that … Read more »
The government has filed its supplemental brief in Hamdan on the question of whether the case is moot. We shared a few weeks back Hamdan’s supplemental brief on the issue. As Wells explained in that post, the three-judge panel in … Read more »
In his response to my earlier post on the New York Times’s 19-to-0 figure–which turns out, he says, to be his 19-to-0 figure–David Remes makes several interesting points worthy of comment. I wish to focus on two here. I will … Read more »
Habeas lawyer David Remes writes in to defend the New York Times‘s use of 19-to-0 as the government’s win-loss record before the D.C. Circuit in habeas cases. He makes, to be honest, a better case than I thought was … Read more »
Just in time for the weekend, here’s the latest in Mingazov. As I noted yesterday, Ravil Mingazov posted his response in opposition to the government’s motion to remand his case back to the District Court. Like clockwork, the government … Read more »
There has been some movement in the long-stalled Mingazov case—one of the Guantanamo habeas cases that’s still kicking around. Way back in December 2010, Larkin shared the government’s brief in its appeal of U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy’s grant … Read more »
A few days ago, the New York Times editorial page made a remarkable claim: “In the 19 [Guantanamo habeas] appeals [the D.C. Circuit] has decided, the court has never allowed a prisoner to prevail.” As I pointed out at … Read more »
I actually don’t have much to say, now that it’s here, on the New York Times editorial on the detention case cert denials. It is almost exactly the editorial I predicted the Times would run (“the inevitable editorial bashing the … Read more »
A few final thoughts on the topic of DC Circuit fidelity to Hamdi and Boumediene, for the three people still paying attention to us (hi Mom!). Steve’s reply to my intervention helps me better understand his position, and I’m … Read more »
At the risk of boring readers who have long-since grown tired of this exchange, let me just offer three quick responses to Bobby’s thoughtful intervention in the back-and-forth between Ben and me on whether the D.C. Circuit really did actively … Read more »
Steve and Ben are having an interesting exchange about an important question: whether the DC Circuit’s caselaw in GTMO habeas proceedings has produced a set of substantive and procedural rules at variance with the positions established by the Supreme Court … Read more »
Ben asks: “What are the specific ‘requirements’ the Supreme Court laid out in Boumediene or Hamdi that the D.C. Circuit has refused to honor such that habeas review is not ‘meaningful’ within the meaning of Boumediene?”
I’ve answered … Read more »
I almost wrote into my post earlier today that while I agreed with Steve’s point that Boumediene remained consequential, I suspected he would not agree with the one I was making. I refrained, but it turned out I was right. … Read more »
Being in a time zone very far from home, I am late to the discussion of the cert denials in the Guantanamo cases. I have only one thought to offer beyond what Steve said earlier–with which I almost entirely … Read more »
As Wells already noted, the Supreme Court denied certiorari today without notation or dissent in all of the seven pending Guantanamo “merits” habeas cases (i.e., cases where the central issue goes to whether the government has proven … Read more »
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 »
