Archive for May 6, 2012

The Hamdan’s Tale

6
1 year ago
by Monotreme in ,

Salim Ahmed Ham­dan. Source: New York Times.

Two cases related to the Guan­tanamo Bay detainees and their treat­ment are mak­ing their way through the court sys­tem now and may be reviewed by the Supreme Court soon.

The first, Jose Padilla v. John Yoo, was the sub­ject of Michael’s arti­cle this morning.

The sec­ond case is being heard (or maybe not, see below) by the D.C. Cir­cuit Court and may well move to the Supreme Court next term.

Salim Ahmed Ham­dan is a Yemeni national who, intel­li­gence offi­cials say, served as a dri­ver for Osama bin Laden. He was detained by Afghan forces in Novem­ber 2001 and held with other sus­pected ter­ror­ists at Guan­tanamo Bay.

In 2006, his case (Ham­dan v. Rums­feld) was heard by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the sys­tem of mil­i­tary tri­bunals cre­ated by Con­gress was uncon­sti­tu­tional because it did not prop­erly fol­low the Geneva Con­ven­tion. The present case is unre­lated to the first; the only com­mon fea­ture is that it fea­tures the same peti­tioner. (more…)

Supreme Court Watch: Yoo Who?

5
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in ,

Jose Padilla

John Yoo

The Supreme Court is done hear­ing cases for this sea­son. But the Ninth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals issued an opin­ion yes­ter­day that may be reviewed by the Supremes in the future. The case is Jose Padilla v. John Yoo.

If those names ring a bell, it’s with good rea­son. Jose Padilla is the Amer­i­can cit­i­zen dubbed the “dirty bomber”, for his arrest, on sus­pi­cion of plot­ting a radi­o­log­i­cal bomb attack, almost exactly ten years ago, on May 8, 2002. John Yoo was a mem­ber of the George W. Bush Admin­is­tra­tion Jus­tice Department’s Office of Legal Coun­sel, where he gained noto­ri­ety as the author of the “Tor­ture Memos”, which pro­vided a legal argu­ment that “enhanced inter­ro­ga­tion” was legally dis­tinct from “tor­ture” as described in the Con­ven­tion Against Tor­ture. (more…)

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