January 4, 2006

U.S. to Seek Dismissal of Guantánamo Suits

By NEIL A. LEWIS

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - The Bush administration notified federal trial judges in Washington that it would soon ask them to dismiss all lawsuits brought by prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, challenging their detentions, Justice Department officials said Tuesday.

The action means that the administration is moving swiftly to take advantage of an amendment to the military bill that President Bush signed into law last Friday. The amendment strips federal courts from hearing habeas corpus petitions from Guantánamo detainees.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department sent notices to all the federal judges in Washington who have cases involving challenges brought by Guantánamo inmates, informing them of the new amendment. The officials said the department would file formal notices within several days asking the judges to dismiss more than 160 cases involving at least 300 detainees.

If the administration wins its argument it would mean an abrupt end to a wide effort by dozens of lawyers to use the right of habeas corpus in federal courts to challenge the imprisonment of suspected terrorists at Guantánamo as enemy combatants.

The administration had selected Guantánamo as the site for a detention camp for terrorism suspects in the expectation that its actions would not be subject to review by federal courts. But in June 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that the naval base at Guantánamo was not outside the jurisdiction of United States law and that the habeas corpus statute that allows prisoners to challenge their detentions was applicable.

The challenges were brought in various district courts in Washington. After some federal judges disagreed over the meaning of the Supreme Court ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit took up the issue, and during arguments in September, the appeals judges seemed skeptical of the administration's contentions.

In addition to arguing in court, the administration separately pressed its case in Congress and found a strong ally in Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who said the challenges brought by Guantánamo inmates were frivolous and were clogging the courts. Mr. Graham, along with Senators Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, and Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, sponsored the amendment to the Defense Act eliminating habeas corpus jurisdiction in federal courts.

The amendment instead allows the District of Columbia appellate court to review the results of military tribunals at Guantánamo in which the prisoners were found to have been properly deemed imprisoned as enemy combatants.

Administration critics have complained that the tribunals at Guantánamo, in which panels of three officers decide whether a prisoner is an enemy combatant, are unfair in several respects. The prisoners are not represented by lawyers and they often may not see evidence used against them for national security reasons.

Tasia Scolinos, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said the detainees had ample opportunity to be heard.

"We are aware of no other country that has provided their enemies with such extensive legal review during an ongoing conflict," Ms. Scolinos said. "Detainees are entitled to legal review both within the military system and to the highest civilian courts in the country."

The Justice Department requests asking the district judges to dismiss all the habeas corpus petitions are expected to be challenged by lawyers for the detainees, making it likely that the issue will be resolved by the appeals court or the Supreme Court.

Although the courts and Congress are co-equal branches of government, the Constitution allows Congress to define the scope of jurisdiction for all federal courts below the Supreme Court.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/04/politics...agewanted=print

this is outrageous.....Carl Levin should have never bought the deal for a bipartisan agreement on this....he was duped........he was promised by Justice and the Republicans that it would not apply to current detainees!!!

Not to mention the fact that it threatens our Habeus Corpus

Levin Protests Move to Dismiss Detainee Petitions

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; A02



Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said yesterday that the Bush administration cannot use recent legislation he helped craft to seek the dismissal of habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, contending that the law applies only to new cases.

Justice Department lawyers filed notice in federal courts in Washington this week that the administration will attempt to have 186 pending cases dismissed beginning Monday. They plan to use the newly signed law to argue that the court no longer has jurisdiction to hear the prisoners' cases.

The administration also wrote a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit indicating that lawyers plan to file a motion next week "to govern further proceedings in these cases in light of the new legislation."

The new language, which President Bush signed into law Friday, restricts Guantanamo Bay prisoners' federal court filings to one review of their status as enemy combatants. It also allows detainees convicted in military trials to appeal those convictions.

In a 2004 Supreme Court decision, the prisoners won the right to file habeas corpus petitions contesting their incarcerations. But Levin and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) wanted to limit further access to the courts via those petitions.

In an interview yesterday, Graham disagreed with Levin, saying that he believes the legislation does not preserve existing lawsuits.

"The courts will decide whether to proceed in pending cases," Graham said.

Levin, however, said he rebuffed at least three administration efforts to make the law retroactive while the legislation was being written. He specifically objected each time, and a compromise bill ultimately was written so that it would apply only to future cases, according to a written statement from his office yesterday.

Legal experts said yesterday that the administration may have room to interpret the law because its language is somewhat vague. It says that the law would "take effect on the date of the enactment" and does not address whether the law applies to pending cases.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, filed additional habeas corpus petitions late last week in an attempt to give more detainees access to the courts before the law took effect, said Bill Goodman, the center's legal director. Goodman said nearly all of the approximately 500 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay now have cases pending in federal courts.

The Bush administration interpreted the new law as applying to all detainee cases, pending or not yet filed, according to a White House signing statement on Friday. Justice Department lawyers believe the law removes the court's jurisdiction, preventing judges from hearing such cases.

Citing the access to courts still provided by the new law, Tasia Scolinos, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said yesterday that "we are aware of no other country that has provided their enemies with such extensive legal review during an ongoing conflict."

District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who is presiding over several detainee cases, moved swiftly yesterday, issuing orders asking lawyers for the detainees to show in court why their cases "should not be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction." The orders require detainees' attorneys to make such arguments by Jan. 12.

"The Act raises serious questions concerning whether this court retains jurisdiction to hear this case and all related matters," Walton wrote in an order released yesterday.

Michael C. Dorf, a law professor at Columbia University, said he was not surprised the administration moved quickly to try to have the cases dismissed. "I think the administration has a plausible argument that it applies to pending cases," he said. "It is legitimately ambiguous language. This is a gift from Congress, enabling them to remove jurisdiction. Why wouldn't they do it right away? In a way, I'm surprised they waited three days."

But Madeline Morris, a law professor at Duke University and adviser to the chief defense counsel for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, said yesterday that she believes the law's language clearly does not apply to previously filed cases.

She said the administration is seeking "to reduce and limit the scope of judicial oversight and involvement in these cases," but that the courts, ultimately, will have the final say unless Congress again steps in.

Levin said in his statement that "the administration is now seeking to end-run the legislative process and achieve a result through the courts that it was unable to obtain in Congress. I hope and expect that the courts will reject this effort."

Staff writer Carol D. Leonnig and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0401866_pf.html

"Day aint got no rights! day be da brown people, day don't like Jesus day aint got no rights! day don't need no stinking commy liberal courts! day be terrorists! day hate Jesus H Bush"


Exert from what went threw JimBob's head as he watched Faux news this morning.
After atching this he walked to his picture of Jesu H Bush saluted it and then walked over to the local unemployment office to pick up his check.