Hamdan transcript06:52 PM | Lyle Denniston
The transcript of Tuesday's hearing in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (05-184) is now available, and can be found here [http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/05-184.pdf]
I can convert the PDF transcript to HTML if there is any interest.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Senators' briefs rejected12:12 PM | Lyle Denniston
The D.C. Circuit Court, pondering the meaning of the court-stripping law passed late last year by Congress (the Detainee Treatment Act), has refused to accept three senators' attempts to help shape the ruling. In a brief order, containing no explanation, the Circuit Court refused to allow the three key sponsors of the new law to file amici briefs in two packets of detainee cases now pending there. No one opposed the filing of those brfiefs. No other amicus briefs were turned aside.
The senators are Republicans Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Kyl of Arizona, who filed a brief together, and Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan.
There is an ongoing debate among those three as to the import of legislative history that the three of them created for the Congressional Record, but that did not actually occur on the floor of the Senate. The controversy centers on whether the Act was meant to withdraw the courts' jurisdiction over already-pending detainee cases -- an issue also before the Supreme Court in the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (05-184).
The Circuit Court's order to return the briefs to the senators can be found here.