Court wants fast filing on new detainee case
on Feb 22, 2008 at 12:17 pm
The Supreme Court on Friday set up a rapid schedule for completing the initial filings in the government’s new appeal on Guantanamo Bay detainees, accepting dates that the government had suggested in asking that the case of Gates v. Bismullah (07-1054) be expedited. The Court’s brief order did not expressly say that the case was being expedited, but that was the practical effect. The Court also did not act immediately on the government’s separate application (07A677) to stay the D.C. Circuit Court ruling that its appeal challenges, pending final Supreme Court action on the appeal. The order can be found here.
The government’s appeal contends that the Circuit Court has wrongly compelled it to supply, for court review of military detention decisions, a wide array of information it may have gathered about individual detainees. It contends that an attempt to assemble such a file would take too much time and would divert military resources, and perhaps would be futile anyway, since it has not retained much of the information the Pentagon had but did not directly submit to the military Combatant Status Review Tribunals that decided whether Guantanamo detainees are enemies and thus must remain confined. The only alternative to reassembling the record, according to the Circuit Court, would be to start all over with new detention proceedings (before Combatant Status Review Tribunals) in all cases.
In asking that the appeal be expedited, the government suggested that the detainees’ lawyers answer the petition by March 4, and that the government reply be due March 11. Those are the dates specified in the Court’s order Friday. In addition, amici were told to file briefs supporting either side by March 4.
This schedule puts the Bismullah petition on track to be considered by the Justices at their next scheduled Conference, on Friday, March 14. That, too, was a date suggested by the government.
It was somewhat surprising that the Court did not act Friday on the government’s plea to stay the Circuit Court ruling — a request that detainees’ lawyers strongly opposed. It may be that the Court wants to see the full outlines of the written exchanges over the appeal itself before deciding whether to put the appeals court decision on hold. If the Court were to grant review in March, it could then issue a stay; conversely, if it were to deny review, the stay plea would be a dead issue.
In any event, the Circuit Court ruling apparently is not now in effect. On Feb. 13, that Court issued an order putting its July 20 decision on hold “pending disposition by the Supreme Court of the Government’s anticipated motion for an emergency stay…, provided the Government files such motion with the Supreme Court and a copy of such motion with this court by February 21.” The government filed its stay request in the Supreme Court on Feb. 14, and notified the Circuit Court the next day that it had done so.
