Litigation

No Decision Now in Uighur Case

By Peter Hardin

The Supreme Court has sent back to a lower court a case asking whether a judge can order release into the United States of detainees wrongly held at Guantanamo. The case had been set for oral argument March 23.

Other countries have offered to accept the detainees involved in the case. They are Chinese Muslims who were captured in Afghanistan, and they come from the heavily Uighur region of western China, where they did not wish to go back. The justices said Monday that recent developments  ?may affect the legal issues presented,? according to a New York Times article.

According to SCOTUSblog, there are two immediate effects of the court order. It vacates an appeals court ruling that federal judges may not order release of the detainees into the United States. In addition, there will not be any final decision by the Supreme Court on detainee issues in its current term.

The appeals court, in the District of Columbia, had ruled that a district could judge could not compel the executive branch to release foreigners into the United States. You can read more about the case from Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 01, 2010 (boomark / email).