Briefing now complete in detainees' cases09:48 PM | Lyle Denniston
The Justice Department on Friday evening filed the final brief in the D.C. Circuit Court on the impact of the new Detainee Treatment Act on the pending challenges to detention by foreign nationals being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The case now proceeds to a hearing before a three-judge panel on Wednesday.
Again, the Department argues that the Act scuttles all existing habeas challenge by the Guantanamo prisoners, but that the Act allows the D.C. Circuit to go forward and rule on the substance of their challenges in a new review process created by the Act.
In addition, the Department once more argues that the detainees have no constitutional claim about suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, because they have no constitutiional rights of any kind.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Hamdan hearing to be broadcast03:23 PM | Lyle Denniston
Broadcast networks will be able to provide next Tuesday, March 28, the audio recording of the 90-minute oral argument in the "military commission" case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (05-184). The Court's public information officer, Kathleen L. Arberg, on Tuesday announced that the Court had authorized the expedited release of the audiotape. It will be released, Arberg said, shortly after the argument concludes; if the argument begins as scheduled at 11 a.m., that should mean broadcasters will be offering it soon after 12:30 p.m.
The case will be argued by Georgetown law professor Neal Katyal for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, and by Solicitor General Paul D. Clement for the federal government.
Besides arguing the merits of the President's order creating the tribunals to try foreign nationals on war crimes charges, the attorneys will debate the impact on the Hamdan case -- and other detainee cases -- of the court-strippiing law enacted late last year by Congress, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.
Only eight members of the Court are expected to hear the case. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., who was on the D.C. Circuit Court panel that upheld the presidential order last year, has recused himself from all matters involving the case at the Court. The senior Associate Justice, John Paul Stevens, will be in charge.
Broadcast organizations interested in the technical details of the audiotape release can find the Court's press release here.