Judge to review Hamdan case further

By Lyle Denniston
on Oct 27, 2006 at 1:30 pm

U.S. District Judge James Robertson on Friday ordered a new review of his Court’s authority to decide remaining issues in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan — the individual whose case led to the Supreme Court decision last June nullifying President Bush’s system for war crimes tribunals for suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Robertson sits in Washington, D.C., and had originally struck down the tribunals. After the Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan’s favor (Hamdan v. Rumsfeld ) on June 28, the D.C. Circuit Court returned the case to Robertson for further proceedings. Hamdan contends that he still wants to challenge the government’s original decision to detain him at Guantanamo Bay. His lawyers asked for new briefing on that and other issues.

After Congress passed and the President signed the new Military Commissions Act of 2006, setting up a new system of war crimes tribunals and seeking to scuttle all pending habeas cases, the Justice Department simply notified Judge Robertson and others with habeas cases of the new law, without recommending any specific action.

In a one-paragraph order issued Friday, Robertson opted to treat the government’s notice as a “motion to dismiss for want of subject matter jurisdiction,” and set up a briefing schedule on that issue. Hamdan’s attorneys may respond to that motion within 21 days, and the Justice Department may reply 14 days later.

Here is the text of the order in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (District Court docket 04-1519):

Upon consideration of petitioner’s motion for order setting schedule for
briefing subject matter jurisdiction and of respondents’ notice of filing
Military Commission Act, it is ORDERED that respondents’ notice is deemed to be
a motion to dismiss for want of subject matter jurisdiction; that petitioner
may have 21 days from the date of this order to file his opposition; and that
respondents may have 14 days after the filing of petitioner’s opposition in
which to file their reply.

JAMES ROBERTSON
United States District Judge