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D.C. Circuit rules that it lacks jurisdiction under the Detainee Treatment Act to review the determination by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal that Guantanamo detainees are "enemy combatants"

D.C. Circuit rules that it lacks jurisdiction under the Detainee Treatment Act to review the determination by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal that Guantanamo detainees are "enemy combatants": The court holds that this outcome is compelled by the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year in Boumediene v. Bush, which declared unconstitutional the Detainee Treatment Act's provision eliminating habeas corpus jurisdiction.

The final paragraph of today's ruling, issued by a unanimous three-judge panel, states:

In sum, we are confident the Congress would not have enacted DTA sec. 1005(e)(2) in the absence of the statutory provision banning the courts from exercising jurisdiction over a detainee's habeas petition. Because the latter provision has been held unconstitutional, the former must also fall. Accordingly, we hold this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the detainees' petitions for review of their status determinations by a CSRT. The petitions are, therefore, Dismissed.

Interestingly, in this appeal it was the federal government that was arguing for dismissal of the cases, while it was the detainees who were hoping to obtain D.C. Circuit review in accordance with a system that the detainees had already successfully invalidated before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Update: At "SCOTUSblog," Lyle Denniston has a post titled "One challenge route closed to detainees."

Full post as published by How Appealing on January 09, 2009 (boomark / email).