Ben’s two questions in response to my post yesterday on the D.C. Circuit’s decision in al-Zahrani are both right on the money, but I think they both have answers–and take a shot below the fold.
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 [...]
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 [...]
I’m not going to do a full oral argument summary of this morning’s case before the D.C. Circuit, Al Zahrani v. Rodriguez, since it was not a habeas merits case. And the issue it raises, whether the families of detainees who died at Guantanamo can bring a Bivens actions in connection with the detention and alleged [...]
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on Thursday in the case of Al-Zahrani v. Rodriguez, which–believe it or not–is not a Guantanamo habeas case. It is, however, a Guantanamo case–and the only one that has ever gotten me labeled “The Worst Possible Person in the World.” (My life has few distinctions, but [...]
I have now had a chance to read Gul, the other D.C. Circuit case that came down on Friday. Gul establishes a proposition that, in my opinion at least, should be pretty obvious: that Guantanamo habeas jurisdiction does not survive the release or transfer of the detainee from Guantanamo. I’m not sure that many people [...]
Habeas lawyer David Remes sent in the following comments on recent developments in D.C. Circuit case law. He emphasizes that he has been counsel in several of the cases discussed below and that the following represents his own opinion only: I agree with my colleague Richard Murphy (here) that for Guantánamo detainees, seeking habeas relief [...]
If a person can’t be troubled to agree with me, the very least he can do is to write good prose. Man, oh man, can Sabin Willett write good prose! Willett, who represented the Uighurs in their Supreme Court case, sent in the following. I will let it speak for itself: Requiem for a [...]
Judge Laurence Silberman’s concurring opinion today in Esmail makes three points, each of them warranting comment. I have enormous regard for Judge Silberman, and I critique his opinion with caution. But I confess myself a little perplexed by it. The first of his points I am honestly not sure I understand. The second is interesting and challenging, and [...]
The meme has been floating about for some time: the D.C. Circuit–and, particularly, the evil Judge A. Raymond Randolph–is subverting habeas, fighting a rear-guard action against the rule of law, and turning Boumediene into an empty shell. Until yesterday’s New York Times editorial on Kiyemba, the meme had been mostly the stuff of frustrated chatter in the [...]
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 worth looking at the trio a little more closely. The new petition, submitted on behalf [...]
They say you can’t tell where an appeals panel is headed based on the oral argument. Sometimes you can. I will go out on a limb on the one I attended today: I will eat my computer if the D.C. Circuit affirms Judge Ricardo Urbina’s decision in Hatim v. Obama. After watching the brief public portion [...]
(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 government appeal from Judge Ricardo Urbina’s district court decision granting the writ to Saleh Hatim, a Yemeni national. [...]
Next Tuesday, November 9th, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral argument in Hatim v. Obama, a habeas merits appeal brought by the government. The court announced today that argument will “proceed first in open session, followed, if necessary, by a classified session closed to the public.” As in Al Alwi, to [...]
Judge A. Raymond Randolph, in his speech the other day at the Heritage Foundation, addressed two intertwined but ultimately distinct issues: Whether the Supreme Court’s Boumediene decision is historically and jurisprudentially sound, and the “mess” it has created in the lower courts. Judge Randolph devoted the body of his speech to the first question, giving an [...]
A. Raymond Randolph, a D.C. Circuit senior judge who has played an out-sized role over the years in the Guantanamo habeas cases, gave a speech yesterday evening at the Heritage Foundation entitled “The Guantanamo Mess.” The video is now available on Heritage’s web site; Judge Randolph’s speech opens with a lengthy series of quotations from [...]
The D.C. Circuit’s 113-pages of non-opinion this week, in which it declined to rehear en banc an earlier panel decision in the Al Bihani case, warrants reflection at a number of levels. I will leave for Jack Goldsmith the very rich subject of the judges’ competing opinions on the relationship between international law and the AUMF–opinions for which Jack’s [...]
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