WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An unusual coalition of
public interest and religious groups with widely-ranging ideological views
filed a joint friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court on Friday in
support of two companion cases brought by detainees at the U.S. Naval Base
at Guantanamo Bay to challenge their detention in American courts.
The cases, Boumediene v. Bush and al Odah v. U.S., test whether the
Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, a pillar of the Administration's
detention policy, validly strips federal courts of jurisdiction over
pending habeas corpus petitions filed by foreign citizen detainees held at
Guantanamo. The cases are on appeal from a 2-1 decision by the U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued on February 20, 2007.
The Supreme Court denied the plaintiffs' original petition for certoriari
on April 2, 2007, and, in an unusual move, reversed that decision on June
29, 2007, after the petitioners sought a rehearing.
The co-counsel in the brief are: The Constitution Project, an
independent think tank that brings together legal and policy experts from
across the political spectrum to promote consensus solutions to pressing
constitutional issues; Human Rights First, a non-profit, nonpartisan
organization that works to create a secure and humane world by advancing
justice, human dignity and respect for the rule of law; Human Rights Watch,
an independent, nongovernmental organization that investigates and reports
on violations of fundamental human rights in over 70 countries worldwide;
and The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization that
specializes in providing legal representation without charge to individuals
whose civil liberties are threatened or violated. Fulbright and Jaworski, a
leading international law firm with a well-recognized Supreme Court and
appellate practice, is serving as counsel.
In addition to the four organizations serving as co-counsel,
signatories to the brief are: American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee,
American Freedom Agenda, American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League,
Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Muslim Public Affairs Council, National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Association of Social
Workers, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., Open
Society Institute, Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, People For the
American Way Foundation, and Union for Reform Judaism.
The administration has strongly opposed permitting habeas corpus suits
by foreigners held as enemy combatants outside the United States. At the
administration's urging, Congress in 2006 passed the MCA, a key feature of
which was to strip federal courts of the ability to hear habeas cases filed
by Guantanamo detainees.
The coalition's arguments in support of the right of Guantanamo
detainees to challenge their detention through habeas corpus focused on the
importance of habeas in the U.S. Constitutional system of checks and
balances. According to the group, the Constitution's habeas provision
"ensures that neither Congress nor the Executive can create 'law-free'
zones within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States where the
Judiciary cannot independently inquire into the legality of Executive
detention . . . Such Kafkaesque regimes may lawfully exist in other
countries where executive power is absolute. But the Framers of our
Constitution expressly ensured that habeas corpus would be available to
permit the Judiciary to check absolute Executive power."
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