Another decision day, no detainee decision
on Feb 9, 2007 at 4:20 pm
The D.C. Circuit Court on Friday handed down another round of opinions, continuing to follow its twice-a-week decision calendar. But, once more, there was no decision on the two packets of cases on the legal rights of foreign nationals being held at the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Court has taken no action on the cases, and has not even responded to a motion filed a week ago Friday asking it to expedite its ruling because of alleged deteriorating conditions for the detainees at Guantanamo.
The lead cases are Boumedine v. Bush (05-5062) and Al Odah v. U.S. (05-5064). The cases have been pending in the Circuit Court for 23 months. There have been two hearings — in September 2005 and in March 2006 — and four rounds of briefings. The most recent round of briefing was completed Nov. 20. Lawyers involved or following the cases had been expecting rulings for weeks. Hundreds of detainee cases depend on the outcome.
In a filing a week ago, lawyers for the Guantanamo detainees recounted the timeline in the cases: “Sixty months ago, the first of the Guantanamo detainees arrived at Guantanamo and began filing habeas petitions seeking release from detention. Thirty months ago, the Supreme Court held that those detainees were entiled to seek such habeas relief. Twenty four months ago, after further habeas petitions were filed, Judges Joyce Hens Green and Richard Leon issued the decisions giving rise to these appeals. Eighteen months ago, this Court heard oral argument on the merits; six months ago, the Supreme Court held that the Detainee Treatment Act did not apply to pending actions; and four months ago, Congress enacted the Military Commissions Act.”
Arguing that habeas review must be speedy in order to be effective, the detainees’ lawyers said that not one of the detainees has had a heariing on the merits of habeas claims, and their cases along with others brought by other detainees have been stayed, awaiting the D.C. Circuit ruling.
“While awaiting this Court’s decision, many detainees are now confined under conditions far worse than nearly anything permitted in an American prison,” the motion contended. “The new Camp 6, to which many of the detainees have been transferred, is a ‘super max’ prison. Detainees are caged in small, concrete cells at least 22 hours per day, deprived of virtually all human contact. With rare and random exceptions, they cannot see, hear, or touch another human being.”
As a result of prolonged detention and isolation, the motion argued, many of the detainees are “in complete despair….Until this Court issues its decision, Guantanamo will remain a land without law…The function of the courts is to decide cases. The Guantanamo detainees respectfully ask this Court to preform that function now.”
They thus asked that, in addition to a prompt ruling on the pending appeals, the Circuit Court should lift the stay to allow District judges to hear the habeas claims and to allow other detainees’ appeals to be heard and decided..
A key issue in the pending cases, however, is whether Congress has taken away the jurisdiction of District judges to hear any challenges to detention by any foreign national taken prisoner by the U.S. anywhere in the world.
