Early action on detainees
on Jun 26, 2007 at 3:59 pm
The Supreme Court is likely to act later this week on two issues that will provide new clues on where it stands on the legal rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees. The Court’s electronic docket shows that the Justices will consider at Thursday’s Conference two petitions to reconsider its denial of review of the court-stripping law passed by Congress last fall, and one petition asking whether that law also has taken away the Supreme Court’s own jurisdiction in detainee habeas cases.
If the Court’s final decision day of the Term is Thursday, it would follow recent custom for orders emerging from the Thursday Conference to be issued on Friday. Otherwise, they probably would come next Monday.
The rehearing petitions are pending in Boumediene v. Bush (06-1195) and Al Odah v. U.S. (06-1196). They seek reconsideration of the April 2 order denying review of the D.C. Circuit Court ruling upholding the denial of habeas rights for detainees, spelled out in the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The pending petition on the Court’s own jurisdiction, in the wake of MCA, is In re Ali (06-1194). The Court asked for responses from the Justice Department on all three; the Department urged the Court to turn down the pleas.
Meanwhile, attorneys for Guantanamo detainees made a new move in U.S. District Court in Washington, to try to head of dismissal of remaining habeas petitions. In a “notice of recent activity in Guantanamo cases,” the lawyers urged the District judges to hold off on granting the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss all such cases. The notice, available at this link, provides a roundup of all of the current activity in three levels of the federal courts on detainee matters.
