Federal Judiciary

Follow-ups to Boumediene begin

By Akin Gump Supreme Court Practice Group

Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees, with their clients newly eligible to challenge their continued imprisonment, have begun asking federal judges to let existing cases go forward.  One of the first moves was a motion to lift a stay and hold an expedited hearing in the case of Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak Al Ginco, a Syrian national.  (His case is Al Ginco v. Bush, District Court docket 05-1310), pending before Judge Richard J. Leon.)

The public defenders for Al Ginco, Steven T. Wax and Stephen R. Sady of Portland, Ore., notified Judge Leon that they had filed their new plea with the court security officer, and would file it with the clerk as soon as the document was cleared.  Their notice of filing said they were seeking to lift a stay, schedule a prompt hearing on a pendiing plea for summary judgment, and hold an emergency status conference.

The filing Friday was a swift followup to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday in Boumediene v. Bush (06-1195), providing renewed access to habeas for the Guantanamo captives. 

It is unclear whether individual District judges will now go forward separately with the cases on their dockets, since Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth had said a conference of judges and lawyers will soon be held to decide how to proceed in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.

Al Ginco also has pending at the Supreme Court a petition for mandamus (In re Al Ginco, docket 07-10553), asking the Justices to order either the D.C. Circuit Court or the District Court to move ahead on his challenge to detention. He contends that he is being unlawfully held — a claim that he presumably can now renew in his pending habeas case before Judge Leon even if the Supreme Court refuses his mandamus request.

Full post as published by SCOTUSBLOG on June 14, 2008 (boomark / email).