Government wants Hamdan case dismissed (Military Commissions Act)

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Government wants Hamdan case dismissed

07:58 PM | Lyle Denniston | Comments (0)

This is another in a continuing series of reports on the lower court impact of the Supreme Court's ruling last June in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, striking down the Bush Administration's initial plan for war crimes tribunals of detainees at the war-on-terrorism camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Justice Department on Friday urged a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to put an end to a habeas challenge by a Yemeni national, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, and to wipe out an earlier order that barred his trial by a U.S. military war crimes tribunal. Arguing that Hamdan has no constitutional rights he can assert in federal court, the Department suggested that he could pursue a limited appeal in D.C. Circuit Court if he is ever convicted of war crimes by a "military commission" or an even more limited challenge there to his detention.

The government's 56-page brief, found here, sets the stage for the first -- or one of the first -- federal court rulings on the constitutionality of the new Military Commissions Act. Congress passed that measure (Public Law 109-366) in October in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan's case last Term. Hamdan's lawyers have raised a variety of constitutional challenges to his detention and to his potential trial before a military tribunal. The briefing is now completed on those arguments, as well as on the government's move to dismiss Hamdan's case altogether, and thus U.S. District Judge James Robertson could rule at any time. In yesterday's brief, the Justice Department sought to refute every one of Hamdan's constitutional claims, and suggested that he had no right (no "standing:) to raise most of them.

more: http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/