A raft of former government officials, military brass and judges weighed in at the Supreme Court Wednesday, on a case that;promises to provide the first clues about the Obama administration's detainee policies.
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and former FBI Director William Sessions;were among those who signed on to friend-of-the-court briefs in Al-Marri v. Pucciarelli, opposing the position that President George W. Bush had taken in the case.
The case originated as a test of Bush's position that the authorization for the use of force Congress passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks authorized him to arrest and indefinitely detain people -- in this case Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri,a Qatari citizen who was lawfully residing in Peoria, Illinois -- suspected of being involved in terrorism.
Obama's Jan. 22 order that the detainee prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be closed within a year, has gotten a lot of attention.
But he has not decided yet precisely how he will tailor his own policies on detaining and trying suspected terrorists, whether they are captured abroad or inside the United States. So the position the Obama administration takes in the al-Marri case is probably going to be the first solid indication of how much of a break Obama is going to make from his predecessor.
Reno and Sessions joined a brief along with former federal judge and White House counsel Abner J. Mikva and other prominent former jurists, arguing that Bush's position was an "unprecedented expansion of executive authority within the borders of the United States" that is "wholly unnecessary," and that the federal courts are well equipped to prosecute terrorism cases.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case on Dec. 5, and the federal government's opening brief was due on Feb. 20.
But on Jan. 22, Obama issued an executive order directing the Attorney General and other Cabinet officers to study his legal options in the case. The same day,the Justice Department asked the court for a delay until March 23 to file its brief, which the court has granted. Oral argument in the case will probably happen in April.
Al Marri was arrested by the FBI on Dec. 12, 2001, in Peoria, where he was studying for a master's degree at a local university. He was initially held in New York as a material witness in the Sept. 11 attacks, and charged with criminal offenses. The Bush administration alleged that al-Marri was an Al Qaeda sleeper agent.
But in June 2003, while al-Marri's criminal case was pending, Bush declared that he was an "enemy combatant."
Al-Marri was transferred to the naval brig in Charleston, S.C.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled 5-4 last July that Bush was authorized to imprison al-Marri under the use-of-force resolution.
A different 5-4 majority ruled that al-Marri hasn't had enough of a chance to challenge the allegations against him.
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