Chief Justice denies detainees’ pleas
on Apr 26, 2007 at 5:19 pm
FINAL VERSION 6:38 PM.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., on Thursday afternoon denied two requests by Guantanamo Bay detainees for temporary aid in their multi-faceted attempt to maintain access to their lawyers as legal maneuvering continues. The detainees asked Roberts to suspend the Supreme Court’s order denying review of their appeal on habeas rights, and to give them more time to seek rehearing of that denial.
In a two-page order, which can be found here, the Chief Justice said that the detainees’ lawyers have not satisfied “the rigorous standard we have established” for suspending the denial of a certiorari petition. And, he also concluded, the Court’s rules “do not provide for any extension of time in which to file a petition for rehearing of an order denying certiorari. Such an order is plainly not a ‘judgment or decision…on the merits” under Rule 44, the order declared..
The two actions by the Chief Justice, who acted alone in his capacity as Circuit Justice for the D.C. Circuit, leave the detainees to rely upon a flurry of procedural requests they have pending in District Courts and in the D.C. Circuit Court. Those filings are attempting to keep alive the detainees’ habeas challenges — scuttled by the Circuit Court in the ruling that the Supreme Court refused to hear April 2 — while they test the military’s reasons for continuing to hold the detainees at the U.S. military prison camp in Cuba.
The Justice Department has moved for dismissal of all pending habeas cases, both in the District Courts and in the Circuit Courts, and is seeking new orders limiting lawyers’ access to detainees and to information the lawyers insist they need to protect their clients’ remaining right to judicial review.
In refusing to suspend the denial order, the Chief Justice said that the detainees’ lawyers “do not even point to any action by the lower courts as prompting their request for extraordinary relief — only the filing of motions and possible court action.” That kind of activity, the order added, “can hardly provide a basis for believing” the Court would “reverse course and grant” review later.
The Chief Justice and the other members of the Court, however, may yet face further requests to become involved again with the detainees’ legal efforts in lower courts. Lawyers already have prepared emergency papers to seek new relief from Roberts or the full Court if they are unable to preserve their clients’ positions in the lower courts.
Meanwhile, the Court will be considering tomorrow at its private Conference the new appeal in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan (Hamdan/Khadr v. Gates, 06-1169), joined by another detainee who — like Hamdan — is facing a war crimes trial before a “military commission.” The Solicitor General on Tuesday notified the Court that formal charges were filed just this week against Khadr. The Solicitor General’s letter of April 24 can now be found here, and the charge sheet referred to is here.
