Jake Tapper reports that the Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to reject a hearing for the Uighur case. These are the trained jihadists whose release into the U.S. had been ordered and then overturned. The Solicitor General Elena Kagan is arguing that the Uighurs do not have the right to be released into the U.S.:
The brief holds to the position of the Bush Administration that a court’s power to issue a remedy in a habeas case — in the wake of the Supreme Court’s mandate that the detainees have a constitutional right to seek their freedom — is limited to a finding of eligibility for release, without an actual release from captivity while diplomatic negotiations to resettle a prisoner continue.
So the Obama administration wants to detain the prisoners until they can figure out what to do with them. This is no different than the Bush administration’s position. What is also interesting is the Obama administration’s defense of Guantanamo, as reported by Tapper:
“In contrast to individuals currently detained as enemies under the laws of war, petitioners are being housed under relatively unrestrictive conditions, given the status of Guantanamo Bay as a United States military base,” Kagan writes, saying they are “in special communal housing with access to all areas of their camp, including an outdoor recreation space and picnic area.” They “sleep in an air-conditioned bunk house and have the use of an activity room equipped with various recreational items, including a television with VCR and DVD players, a stereo system, and sports equipment.”
The President just gave a speech in which he criticized Guantanamo and said “[T]he existence of Guantanamo likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained.” Now his administration is saying it is not so bad because it is convenient to do so in this case.
Andy McCarthy comments here.
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