Detention: Law of: District Court Development

On April 19, Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion in ​Doe v. Mattis on the government's proposed transfer of John Doe. The court unsealed the opinion on Monday:

On Tuesday, April 17, the Justice Department filed a notice alerting the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of the government's intention to transfer John Doe, an American citizen held in U.S. military detention in Iraq, to an unnamed third country. Under the terms of a preliminary injunction issued by the court, the government is required to provide 72 hours' notice before transferring Doe.

Khalid Ahmed Qassim, a Guantanamo Bay detainee from Yemen who made international headlines by writing in the Guardian about his hunger strike protesting his treatment, submitted multiple filings to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Feb. 22: a Joint Status Report (alongside the Department of Justice), a motion in limine, and a prehearing brief. This post will summarize each of these three filings.

The Guantanamo detainee, as readers likely know, argued in a February motion that the end of the United States' war in Afghanistan, as recognized by President Obama, requires his release from Guantanamo. On Wednesday, Al-Warafi filed his reply brief on that issue. It opens as follows: