Legal Beat

The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to dismiss a case challenging the legality of an enemy combatant's detention.

Yesterday, a federal grand jury in Peoria, Ill. charged Ali Saleh Kahleh Al-Marri with two counts of material support for terrorism. Acting Solicitor General Edwin S. Kneedler filed a motion in Al-Marri v. Spagone urging the high court to drop the case in light of the criminal charges. Kneedler also filed an application for Supreme Court approval of a transfer of al-Marri from military custody to criminal custody.

Civil libertarians applaud the administration's move to put al-Marri in the criminal justice system. But they want President Obama to go further, and renounce his predecessor's view that the president is empowered to arrest and imprison people inside the United States indefinitely without charge or trial.

"The Obama administration has not yet renounced its power to do this again in the future, and it's imperative that the Supreme Court make clear that the president does not have the legal authority to imprison legal residents or American citizens in this country without trial," said ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz, who is representing al-Marri before the high court.