Federal Judiciary

Detainees want deadlines kept

By Akin Gump Supreme Court Practice Group

Accusing government lawyers of a “consistent strategy of obstruction and delay,” attorneys for Guantanamo Bay detainees are urging a federal judge not to relax the timetables he has set to enable the prisoners’ legal challenges to move forward.  In a series of responses, filed over the past several days, detainees’ counsel asked Senior District Judge Thomas F. Hogan to make no change in his procedural framework for some 114 cases involving about 200 captives.

In fact, some of the detainees’ lawyers urged Judge Hogan not to act at all on the government’s sweeping plea for changes in the case management order the judge has issued for those cases.  The filings contended that Justice Department lawyers have failed to get together with detainees’ counsel for discussions before asking Hogan to make those changes; local court rules require some such encounter.  (A post discussing the changes proposed is here, and post about a temporary stay order by Hogan is here.)

The detainees’ responses have not been consolidated. The filings, numbering more than 20, can be found on the District Court’s website on the docket for 08-442 — Judge Hogan’s omnibus case on detainees’ habeas procedures — under docket entries beginning with 1027 and continuing, amid some other filings.  Further responses are expected during the day Wednesday — the deadline for responses.

In opposing key features of Judge Hogan’s scheme for processing Guantanamo habeas cases, the Justice Department requested that, if those changes are not made, the judge clear he way for the government to pursue a prompt appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court.  Detainees’ lawyers countered in their responses that the case management order is not the kind of ruling that is subject to appeal.

Full post as published by SCOTUSBLOG on November 26, 2008 (boomark / email).