There’s more about the amicus brief filed by Janet Reno and others at The Talking Dog.
The Mahablog
Politics. Society. Group Therapy.
There’s more about the amicus brief filed by Janet Reno and others at The Talking Dog.
Question: Do the Bush constitution-busters go shopping around for a compromised ‘court’ for these cases? I ask because I have some written evidence of that particular Richmond court’s clerk [hurriedly but poorly, hence my materials] altering court records to ‘disappear’ certain materials which a powerful group wanted ‘disappeared’ from the court logs.
Well, if I ‘disappear’ after writing the above, the question is probably affirmatively answered.
Donna–
Extremely perceptive question, and the answer is “yes”. In the first Padiilla case, the Bushmen got the Supreme Court (5-4) to buy the concept that what matters most in a habeas corpus case is not the unlawful detention, but that the right venue and specific jailer are named as respondents (even if the government confuses venue by not telling anyone where the detainee is)… while as an “academic” matter, it was probably wrong to hold citizens for three years without charges, trial… or counsel… let alone indictment, solely on the say-so of the government, it was FAR WORSE to have brought the case in New York, where everyone thought Padilla was, rather than in South Carolina, where the government decided to move him.
Hence, the choice of the naval brig in Charleston, in South Carolina, in the Fourth Circuit, one of the most conservatives states as it is (though the federal district judge in the Padilla case blasted the Bush Administration, things have gone better for it with Al-Marri), located in the most conservative circuit, was quite deliberate.
Indeed, I was told that the best anti-terrorist prosecutors in the nation were based in the federal prosecutors’ office in Manhattan, where they had a string of successes after the first WTC bombing, the African embassy bombings, etc. BUT… a decision was made that Manhattan juries wouldn’t return death sentences, so, for example, cases like Moussaoui were brought in Virginia where they were more likely to get them (and then affirmed by the 4th Cir. in Richmond.)
But yes… clearly this is a case of forum shopping for the government. I’m guessing the 4th Cir. will have no problem with what the government is doing to Al-Marri (the law be damned)… what matters, I suppose, is what Justice Kennedy thinks of it…
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