Counterterrorism

The Worst of the Worst? What al-Shamiri’s Case Tells Us About Gitmo Detainees

Earlier this month, the US government revealed that Guantánamo detainee Mustafa al-Aziz al-Shamiri was a low-level fighter, not the al-Qaeda courier and trainer the government…

Dec. 17, 2015 Adam Jacobson

Second Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc in Turkmen; Is Supreme Court Next?

I’ve written before both here and at MSNBC about the Second Circuit’s immensely significant June 17 decision in Turkmen v. Hasty, which recognized a cause of action…

Dec. 11, 2015 Steve Vladeck

On Human Rights Day, One Year On: No Apology and No Accountability for US Torture

A year ago yesterday, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a redacted version of the executive summary of its exhaustive report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation…

Dec. 10, 2015 Meg Satterthwaite

The Government’s Surprising (and Flawed) New Attack on Habeas Corpus in Immigration Cases

These days, most discussions of the US Constitution’s Suspension Clause — and the entitlement to judicial review that it codifies — center upon non-citizen terrorism suspects…

Dec. 8, 2015 Jonathan Hafetz and Steve Vladeck

Remember Why We Have the Fourth Amendment

The Paris attacks have fueled a debate over surveillance on both sides of the Atlantic that, while not new, has reached a level of hysteria that I have not witnessed since the…

Nov. 25, 2015 Michael Price

Still Secret: Second Circuit Keeps More Drone Memos From the Public

Secret law has been anathema to our democracy since its Founding, but a federal appeals court just gave us more of it. Almost two centuries ago, James Madison wrote that “[a]…

Nov. 24, 2015 Brett Max Kaufman

The insoluble Guantánamo problem (Part Three: Executive disregard of the GTMO-to-U.S. relocation prohibition is not a solution)

In my first two posts (here and here) I’ve described how intransigent (and unjustifiable) political opposition has made it virtually impossible for the President to relocate…

Nov. 13, 2015 Marty Lederman

The insoluble Guantánamo problem (Part Two: The NDAA restrictions)

In my earlier post, I explained that the failure to close the detention facility at Guantánamo has been the one conspicuous and unfortunate exception to what has otherwise been…

Nov. 12, 2015 Marty Lederman

The insoluble Guantánamo problem (Part One: The President’s successful transformation of U.S. detention practices . . . and the GTMO exception)

Charlie Savage’s Power Wars (see our ongoing symposium here) tells a very important, and mostly overlooked, story about President’s Obama’s policies and practices with respect…