More than a year after CCR’s victory in Rasul v. Bush, in which the Supreme Court held that Guantánamo detainees have the right to challenge the legality of their detention in federal court, CCR attorneys and cooperating lawyers for the detainees now find themselves – once again – arguing in the Court of Appeals that the detainees’ challenges must be heard in court. The government, in its effort to dismiss the first 13 habeas petitions filed by attorneys after the Rasul ruling, contends that although the detainees may have the right to get to the courthouse, they have no rights – domestic or international – to be vindicated there. More specifically, the government contends that the Guantánamo detainees have no right to due process of law – no right to have a court hear their case or evaluate their claims of innocence. In short, in the government’s view, the Guantánamo detainees can go to court but cannot be heard.

Lawyers for the detainees will argue that the Supreme Court already decided this issue last year in Rasul and that the Court would not have written such an empty ruling. Further, the detainees’ lawyers will argue that the right to challenge the legality of Executive detention is a right anchored in the common law dating back to the time of the Magna Carta, and is one of the core principles upon which this country was founded.

WHO:
Federal Circuit Judges Sentelle, Randolph, and Rogers
Attorneys Arguing: Thomas Wilner, Sherman & Sterling, and Stephen Oleskey, Wilmer Hale
Spokespeople: Barbara Olshansky, the Center for Constitutional Rights Gitanjali Gutierrez, the Center for Constitutional Rights

WHEN: Thursday, September 8, 2005, 9:30 a.m.

WHERE:
United States Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit
United States Courthouse
Courtroom 20 on the 6th Floor

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