Classification of 180 detainees as enemy combatants in dispute

Linda Greenhouse has an interesting article in today’s New York Times, Bush Appeals to Justices on Detainees Case, about the administration’s request for the Supreme Court to hear Gates v. Bismullah.  The question is that case is what evidence the government must present to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to defend a military Combatant Status Review Tribunal’s determination that a detainee is an enemy combatant.

According to the article, the D.C. Circuit has already held that the government must provide “all the information” that the CSRT was “authorized to obtain and consider,” regardless of whether the tribunal considered the evidence.  The government argued that it did not preserve evidence it did not present and the court ruled that it is now obliged to convene new tribunals.

The outcome of Boumediene v. Bush, which will address the detainee’s habeas corpus rights, will directly impact Gates.

~ by Ari Kaplan on February 15, 2008.