Court Review of “Torture Yes/Habeas Corpus No” Detainee Law

Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports The D.C. Circuit Court on Wednesday agreed to call for new briefs on the impact of the new detainee law on two packets of cases in which captives at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are testing their original detention and continued imprisonment. In two identical orders, the Court granted the request of detainees' lawyers to have further briefing. The Justice Department had urged the appeals court to go ahead and decide the cases without new briefs. (…) The schedule indicates that the Circuit Court will not decide the cases until December, at the earliest. (…) Among the cases in which the identical notification was filed was Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (docket 04-1519), the case that has returned to District Court after the Supreme Court ruled on it, striking down the prior military commission system set up by President Bush. Hamdan's attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge James Robertson to call for new briefs on the impact of the Act on Hamdan's continuing challenge to his detention.