Anthony Clark Arend

From SCOTUSblog:
Voicing some concern over the government creating a “black hole” for detainees in a “law-free zone” at an overseas military base, a federal judge hinted on Wednesday that he may allow some of the prisoners the U.S. holds in Afghanistan to file court cases to test their captivity.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates strongly implied that he thought some …

From SCOTUSblog:
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled on Tuesday that two Guantanam Bay detainees — nationals of Yemen and Tunisia — must remain prisoners of the U.S. military, finding that the government has proved that each is an “enemy combatant.”  In the most significant of the two separate rulings, the judge concluded that the government does not have to …

In case you missed it, the Executive Summary of the Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody can be found here. Some highlights ["U" means unclassified; bold is my emphasis added]:

(U) On February 7, 2002, President Bush signed a memorandum stating that the Third Geneva Convention did not apply to the conflict with al …

Bobby Chesney reports:

* Al Marri v. Pucciarelli (08-368) – cert granted
The Supreme Court has granted cert in connection with the Fourth Circuit’s splintered en banc decision in Al-Marri, and thus is set to engage the questions whether the 9/18/01 AUMF authorizes—and if so whether the Constitution allows—military detention of a noncitizen seized in the U.S. in connection with allegations of …

The New York Times is reporting this morning:
The United States military has decided to release a former driver for Osama bin Laden whose trial became a test case for the Bush administration’s system of military commissions for accused terrorists, Yemeni officials said.
The driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and convicted and sentenced in August, will …

From SCOTUSBlog:
In a 19-page ruling, District Judge John D. Bates denied review at this time on part of the claims by Omar Khadr seeking to challenge his military commission trial, and ruled that the court had no authority to consider another challenge.  (The judge’s opinion in Khadr v. Bush, 04-1136, is here; an order to implement it is here.)
Khadr was 15 …