Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, it appears that the Supreme Court disagrees with me–and doesn’t think the constitutionality of courts-martial for civilian contractors is worth its time. [H/T: SCOTUSblog.]
Next Thursday, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not to grant certiorari in United States v. Ali–the case in which the highest court in the military justice system, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF), unanimously … Read more »
Regular readers may recall my and Wells‘s posts on the public/media access issues that arose out of the 9/11 military commission trial, along with the (in my view, erroneous) resolution of the ACLU and media appeals last month by … Read more »
As the recent decisions by the Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) in the Guantánamo military commission ACLU/media access cases suggests, there are a host of complicated and heretofore unresolved questions about the scope of appellate and collateral review of … Read more »
Military commission accused Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulaiman al-Bahlul has submitted his response to the government’s petition for rehearing by the full D.C. Circuit. In January, a 3-judge panel of that court vacated al-Bahlul’s conviction for conspiracy. The Department of Justice … Read more »
Back in January, we devoted a fair amount of attention to the DOJ Supplemental Brief in the al-Bahlul military commission appeal–and the rather significant internal debate within the Administration about whether to accept the D.C. Circuit’s ruling in Hamdan II… Read more »
The following guest post is the latest in a series comprising a debate as to whether LOAC requires an attempt to capture rather than a first-resort to lethal force in some circumstances. The debate up to this point involved Professor … Read more »
While some other stuff was going on yesterday, my friend Lindsay Harrison at Jenner & Block and I filed an amicus brief on behalf of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and in support of certiorari in United States … Read more »
To considerable fanfare, departing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey announced this week the decision to lift the ban on woman serving in combat units. Panetta stated: “General Dempsey and I are pleased to announce … Read more »
The government has filed its reply brief in Hedges. The new brief rounds out the briefing, joining the government’s opening brief and the appellees’ brief—along with a bunch of amicus briefs. It opens:
We explained in our
Earlier this week, I posted a short note about the National Intelligence Council and its projection of alternate futures for the year 2030. While I would never say the work was derivative :-), I should have noted that it bears … Read more »
Yesterday, plaintiffs in Hedges v. Obama asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to vacate the stay entered by the Second Circuit. The district court permanently enjoined enforcement of Section 1021(b)(2) of the NDAA, but the Second Circuit quickly blocked that ruling… Read more »
Just after the election, I wrote:
As we have often discussed on this blog, and as Bobby has best documented, terrorist organizations that threaten the United States are increasingly difficult to fit under the AUMF rubric. This raises the
Ben beat me to it, but this morning, the D.C Circuit issued a terse order removing United States v. al Bahlul (the “other” military commission appeal) from its argument calendar (it was scheduled to be argued before Judges Henderson, … Read more »
One of the many difficulties that arise when a state employs its military to conduct operations within its own borders is the question of whether alleged abuses committed by the military should be tried in military tribunals or instead in … Read more »
With a hat tip to Bobby, I wanted to flag that the Fourth Circuit on Friday upheld the conviction of Sean Brehm, a non-citizen convicted under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) for an offense committed against another non-citizen on … Read more »
Secretary of Defense Panetta has directed the Defense Legal Policy Board to form a subcommittee to examine “military justice in cases of U.S. Service members alleged to have caused the death, injury, or abuse of non-combatants in Iraq or Afghanistan,” … Read more »
As I noted yesterday, the highest court in the U.S. military justice system—the Article I Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (“CAAF”), a circuit-level court with mostly discretionary jurisdiction over each of the service branch courts of criminal … Read more »
It’s turned out to be a very big news day in national security litigation land… In addition to the extensive coverage of Aulaqi v. Panetta (to which I hope to add some thoughts of my own later tonight), I wanted … Read more »
According to various media reports, General Stanley McChrystal suggested late last month that the United States should bring back the draft if it goes to war again, arguing that the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have … Read more »
For D.C.-area readers, I’ll be participating in what should be a lively discussion of the current and future legal and policy issues surrounding military commissions (I suspect it will be that much livelier if Hamdan comes down in the … Read more »
Our friends over at Opinio Juris are hosting a neat online symposium discussion of Professor Laura Dickinson’s book Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign Affairs. In addition to two posts (so far) … Read more »
A gentle reminder – not that you really needed one, being a devoted Lawfare reader and all - Ben and I will be live-blogging tomorrow’s much-anticipated arraignment in United States v. KSM et al. According to the military commissions’ … Read more »
Pardon the interruption from the wall-to-wall Nashiri coverage, but before it disappears too far into the past, I wanted to flag United States v. Ali–a case in which the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (“CAAF”) heard oral … Read more »
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Department of Justice’s Inspector General released an interim report on the Department’s handling of “known or suspected” terrorists who have entered the government’s witness protection program. The report found, among other things, that information on some program participants had not been turned over to no-fly list authorities; and, that two such people could not be located—though one… Read more »
