Press Releases
Liberty & National Security
Crucial Court Hearing Challenges Congress’ Power to Deprive Individuals of Habeas Corpus Rights
oday, for first time in court, lawyers challenged Congress’ power to deprive individuals in the U.S. of habeas corpus rights pursuant to the Military Commissions Act. Lawyers for Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who has been detained without charges since December 2001, argued the U.S. government’s detention policy - and the premises on which it is based—violate the U.S. Constitution. Government lawyers responded that the president is acting within his powers and that, due to passage of the Military Commissions Act, the circuit court of appeals lacks jurisdiction to hear the case.
Reno Files Challenge to Terror Law
Former Attorney General Janet Reno and seven other former Justice Department officials filed court papers Monday arguing that the Bush administration is setting a dangerous precedent by trying a suspected terrorist outside the court system.
Authored by: Press Release
– 11/21/06
Government Seeks to Strip Immigrants of Habeas Corpus
For the first time in Americas history, immigrants in the United States can be indefinitely imprisoned as enemy combatants without court review, according to papers filed last night by the government in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. The government has now asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to dismiss a habeas corpus petition filed by 41-year old student, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who has been imprisoned without charge in a Navy Brig near Charleston, South Carolina for 3 years.
– 11/14/06
Federal Judge Strikes Down Warrantless Spying Program
A federal district judge in Detroit today struck down the Presidents warrantless domestic spying program operated by the National Security Agency. The decision by Judge Anna Diggs Taylor is yet another setback for the Presidents claim of unchecked executive power, and an important victory for the rule of law.
– 08/17/06
American Citizen Urges Court To Review His Prolonged Detention in Iraq and to Protect the Rule
A federal lawsuit filed today in Washington, D.C., challenges the Executive Branchs prolonged detention of an American citizen in Iraq without court review. The suit, entitled Munaf v. Harvey, was filed by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, with co-counsel Burke Pyle LLC and the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law.
– 08/16/06
Brennan Center Files Brief Rebuffing Claim to Unilateral Detention Authority
The U.S. Government has made the unprecedented claim that it can hold a U.S. citizen virtually incommunicado and then hand him over to potential torture. A brief filed last Friday by lawyers for a U.S. citizen detained in Iraq for more than nineteen months decisively responds to this extraordinary claim of unchecked executive power.
– 06/26/06
Top Civil Rights Groups Join Challenge to NSA Spying
Today, the NAACP and five other leading civil rights organizations joined the growing challenge to the Administrations illegal National Security Agency spying program.
– 04/20/06
Former Judges Denounce Detention of Innocent Men at Guantanamo
The Brennan Center for Justice and the law firm of Jenner & Block LLP filed a brief yesterday on behalf of former federal judges in Qassim v. Bush. The brief argues that our federal courts have the power to end the four-year-plus detention of two men in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base who the Government concedes are innocent, but who remain imprisoned. Such an arbitrary exercise of executive authority, contend the former judges, cannot go unchecked by the courts.
– 02/22/06
Court Issues Injunction Blocking US Citizen’s Transfer to Torture
Today, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction barring transfer of U.S. citizen to Iraqi authorities where he would be at grave risk of torture. Judge Urbina rejected the governments sweeping claim that federal courts have no role protecting U.S. citizens liberties when the U.S. government detains them overseas. His decision transforms an emergency order, issued on February 3, into an ongoing preliminary injunction.
– 02/13/06