20 Feb D.C. Circuit Dismisses Guantanamo Petitioners Under Military Commissions Act
20.02.07
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has dismissed a habeas petition by a number of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, holding that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 deprives federal courts of jurisdiction over these detainees’ cases. (The opinion is uploaded here). The majority also finds that there is no Suspension Clause problem in the MCA (in other words, that the Military Commissions Act is constitutional). This fight is far from over, but certainly this is an important defeat for the Guantanamo detainees.
I’ve posted some preliminary reactions here.
To quote from the many responses at Mr. Lederman’s blog:
Boiled down to essentials, the dissent argues that the Suspension Clause cannot be a nullity; that there must be some actions that are prohibited from Congress. If habeas corpus is only a statutory right, and defined in scope and in application solely by the statutes, and jurisdiction to hear habeas cases is entirely a statutory creation, then how can Congress not amend this right at any time simply by rewriting the statutes covering habeas corpus to redefine that right’s scope and application? How could it “suspend” a right that it had created?
As far as I can tell, many of the supporters of the dissent don’t seem to be big fans of Ex parte Bollman. However, it doesn’t appear that’s at all the issue they are considering.
One wonders if SCOTUS plans on coining us another 10th amendment right.