New briefs ordered on detainee law
on Oct 18, 2006 at 10:12 pm
The D.C. Circuit Court on Wednesday agreed to call for new briefs on the impact of the new detainee law on two packets of cases in which captives at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are testing their original detention and continued imprisonment. In two identical orders, the Court granted the request of detainees’ lawyers to have further briefing. The Justice Department had urged the appeals court to go ahead and decide the cases without new briefs. The Circuit Court’s orders can be found here.
Under the schedule announced by the three-judge panel, the detainees’ briefs on “the significance of the Military Commissions Act of 2006” will be due on Nov. 1. The government’s response is due on Nov. 13, and the detainees’ briefs a week later, on Nov. 20.
The schedule indicates that the Circuit Court will not decide the cases until December, at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department notified District Court judges in Washington, D.C., of President Bush’s signature on Tuesday on the Military Commissions Act, making it law. Those judges have scores of detainee habeas cases pending in their courts. The Department’s filing did not recommend any specific response, but did note that the new law bars all such habeas challenges by war-on-terrorism detainees who are foreign nationals.
Among the cases in which the identical notification was filed was Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (docket 04-1519), the case that has returned to District Court after the Supreme Court ruled on it, striking down the prior military commission system set up by President Bush. Hamdan’s attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge James Robertson to call for new briefs on the impact of the Act on Hamdan’s continuing challenge to his detention.
