Federal Judiciary

U.S. opposes torture lawsuit

By Akin Gump Supreme Court Practice Group

The Obama Administration, taking its first position in a federal court on claims of torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees, urged the D.C. Circuit Court on Thursday to reject a lawsuit by four Britons formerly held there.  In addition, the new filing argued that a recent appeals court ruling makes clear that “aliens held at Guantanamo do not have due process rights.”

Moreover, the document called for a sweeping ban on lawsuits against U.S. military officials claiming constitutional violations. Allowing such lawsuits “for actions taken with respect to aliens during wartime,” it said, “would enmesh the courts in military, national security, and foreign affairs matters that are the exclusive province of the political branches.”

Lawyers for the four former prisoners, in their own new filing, argued that they have constitutional rights that they can assert against former Pentagon officials and officers who authorized and carried out torture while the Britons were in captivity.  The lawyers contended that the Constitution’s guarantee of due process applies to those who were held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba.

Both new briefs were filed in Rasul, et al., v. Myers, et al., (D.C. Circuit Court docket 06-5209). The Britons’ brief is here.  The government brief is here.

The Supreme Court last December had ordered the Circuit Court to reconsider the Rasul case, in the wake of the Justices’ ruling last June in Boumediene v. Bush.  The Circuit Court called for new briefs. Each side is to file a reply brief on March 23.

Full post as published by SCOTUSBLOG on March 12, 2009 (boomark / email).