Wednesday, February 22, 2012
This just in: the Office of Chief Defense Counsel in the Military Commissions asked the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Ethics Advisory Committee for an advisory opinion on whether defense counsel can comply with Rear Admiral David Woods’ order requiring attorney-client mail to be reviewed and remain consistent with their ethical obligations. The committee has [...]
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Steve is quite right that yesterday’s decision in Al Zahrani is no surprise. Indeed, after the total train wreck of an oral argument, in which the judges literally walked out on counsel for the plaintiffs, I wrote that “everyone in the room knows exactly what this opinion is going to say.” And it says exactly what everyone [...]
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Given Ben’s report on the oral argument, today’s fairly cryptic D.C. Circuit opinion in al-Zahrani v. Rodriguez, throwing out a damages suit arising out of the deaths of several inmates at Guantanamo, is hardly surprising. Writing for a himself and Judges Williams and Randolph, Chief Judge Sentelle held that the plaintiffs’ claims are barred by [...]
Also filed in Constitutional Rights, Detention, Detention: Law of: D.C. Circuit Development, Guantanamo: Litigation: D.C. Circuit, Interrogation: Interrogation Abuses: Civil Liability
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Tagged A. Raymond Randolph, Al Zahrani v. Rodriguez, Bivens, David Sentelle, Military Commissions Act, Minneci v. Pollard, Rasul II, Stephen Williams
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Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Over at the Document Exploitation blog, Douglas Cox of the CUNY Law School has this very interesting post on redactions in the Alsabri Guantanamo habeas case–which was decided at the District Court level about a year ago and is now pending at the D.C. Circuit. It opens: A Guantanamo case currently awaiting an appellate decision from [...]
Thursday, February 9, 2012
There apparently hasn’t been any press about this yet, but there’s a new lawsuit filed over Rear Admiral David Woods’ order last year requiring all attorney-client communications at Guantanamo to be reviewed before they are delivered to the detainee. We’ve posted before about the earlier case raising this issue, that brought by Mustafa Ahmed Al [...]
Also filed in Constitutional Rights, Detention, Detention: Law of, Detention: Law of: District Court Development, Guantanamo, Guantanamo Litigation: District Court, Guantanamo: Prosecutions, Terrorism Trials, Terrorism Trials: Military Commissions
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Tagged Al Hawsawi, Ammar Al Baluchi, III, James G. Connell, Rear Adm. David Woods
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Wednesday, February 8, 2012
The reply brief in support of certiorari in Al-Madhwani v. Obama has been filed. We earlier posted Al Madhwani’s cert petition and the government’s opposition to cert. Al-Madhwani is seeking review of this DC Circuit opinion affirming his detention. That opinion, in turn, affirmed District Judge Thomas Hogan’s earlier opinion.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Raffaela is correct that there’s nothing terribly surprising in the D.C. Circuit’s Suleiman opinion, which was publicly released yesterday. In fact, the brief opinion–written by Judge Thomas Griffith for himself and Judges Merrick Garland and David Tatel–is notable chiefly for its routine tone in affirming a detention. Cases that were once ground-breaking–raising novel and difficult [...]
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The D.C. Circuit’s affirmance of the District Court’s judgment in Suleiman v. Obama, which we noted two weeks ago, is available here. Nothing terribly surprising in the opinion, which was written by Judge Griffith.
Don’t let it ever be said that the D.C. Circuit always rules against detainees. Today, a three-judge panel ruled kept Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman Al Bahlul’s military commission appeal alive–likely against Al Bahlul’s will. The government, as you may recall from prior coverage, had challenged whether the Al Bahlul had really authorized the appeal of his conviction and [...]
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The government has filed its answer to Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi’s petition for a writ of mandamus concerning monitoring of attorney-client communications at Guantanamo. Al Hawsawi’s motion for a preliminary injunction against the mail screening has already been denied. The government now argues: Petitioner is a military detainee at the United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Military commission [...]
Well, that didn’t take long. The government only submitted its opposition to Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari’s petition for en banc review on January 19. But the D.C. Circuit today denied the petition. A D.C. Circuit panel decided Al Kandari’s case in December, after cancelling oral arguments.
No big surprise here: The D.C. Circuit has affirmed the judgment of the District Court in upholding the detention of Guantanamo detainee Abdul-Rahman Abdo Abulghaith Suleiman’s appeal. The opinion has not been released yet, but the order is available here. When the redacted opinion, filed by Judge Thomas Griffith, is made available, we will post it. Read [...]
The government has filed its opposition to cert in the case of Al Madhwani v. Obama–a Guantanamo habeas case. Al Madhwani’s cert petition seeks review of this DC Circuit opinion affirming his detention. That opinion, in turn, affirmed District Judge Thomas Hogan’s earlier opinion. The government’s argument is interesting because it explicitly invokes the new language in the NDAA: In [...]
Thursday, January 26, 2012
My earlier post prompted the following reply from Cully Stimson, whom I thank for sending such a thoughtful response, and which I think it only fair to post in its entirety: My friend Steve Vladeck takes me to task for what he believes is my point in my Heritage post. He writes, “Stimson believes that [...]
Thursday, January 26, 2012
I don’t normally agree on detention policy matters with Seton Hall’s Mark Denbeaux–and there’s certainly some rhetoric in this piece in Jurist that I would never use and conclusiosn I do not reach. That said, I recommend it to those interested in why Latif is a big deal, a point I have made more than once myself. Denbeaux’s article [...]
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The D.C. Circuit has batted back Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop the new mail search policy at Guantanamo Bay. A per curiam order by a panel consisting of Judges Merrick Garland, Janice Rogers Brown, and Judith Rogers says that: Petitioner has not satisfied the stringent requirements for an injunction pending court [...]
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Here it is–redactions and all. Enjoy!
Former Guantanamo detainee Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak Al Janko has also filed a notice of appeal in the D.C. Circuit concerning a December decision by Judge Richard Leon throwing out his civil suit.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
As we noted at the end of December, Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari filed a motion for rehearing en banc in the D.C. Circuit, asking the court to consider whether Federal Rule of Evidence 1101(e) applies to Guantanamo habeas corpus cases. The 3-judge panel, composed of Judges Brett Kavanaugh, Laurence Silberman, and Douglas Ginsburg, issued a per [...]
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Against the al-Nashiri backdrop, the government has now filed its brief on the merits in United States v. Hamdan (the first post-conviction appeal under the Military Commissions Acts of 2006 and 2009), which is set to be argued to a D.C. Circuit panel (Chief Judge Sentelle and Judges Ginsburg and Kavanaugh) on May 3. The central [...]
Also filed in Executive Power, Guantanamo, Guantanamo: Litigation: D.C. Circuit, Guantanamo: Prosecutions, International Law, International Law: LOAC, Terrorism Trials, Terrorism Trials: Military Commissions
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Tagged Al Nashiri, Brett Kavanaugh, David Sentelle, Douglas Ginsburg, Ex parte Quirin, Harlan Fiske Stone, Material Support Law, United States v. Hamdan
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The cert petition in Latif has been filed. So far, only the questions presented have been released publicly. They are as follows: 1. Whether requiring the district court to presume the accuracy of intelligence reports denies Guantanamo habeas petitioners the “meaningful opportunity” to contest the lawfulness of their detention guaranteed by Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. 723 [...]
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Last week, Ben was perplexed by the government’s reply in opposition to a motion for a preliminary injunction in a mysterious case brought by Mustafa al Hawsawi over Rear Adm. Woods’ recent order regarding monitoring of lawyer-client communications at Guantanamo. While the government’s response was available, Al Hawsawi’s brief and motion were nowhere to be found. The petitioner’s redacted brief , [...]
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
If Ben needs something to tear into, there’s also this–my guest post over at the ACSblog, which uses Judge Brown’s disturbing rhetoric in Latif as a foil through which to evaluate this “anniversary.” Reasonable people (including us) will disagree about the merits of detainee policy going forward, but the paragraph on which the post focuses seems [...]
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Never fear, Ben! While the Times may have disappointed you today, NPR has stepped into the breach this morning with its Guantanamo anniversary story. To be frank, I’m more than a little surprised by this, as NPR’s coverage is usually top-notch. The relevant passage follows a clip from an interview with Mark Martins in which Mark argues that upcoming [...]
