Supreme Court Dismisses Guantánamo Detainee Resettlement Case
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 10:44 am by Heather MarloweA group of Chinese Muslims, known as the Uighurs, were dealt a heavy blow by the Supreme Court on Monday. The Uighurs brought suit against the United States government because they were being illegally detained and wanted to be released into the United States instead of being shipped off to a neutral country. The Uighurs have been found to pose no threat to the United States and cannot return home to China for fear of being persecuted.
The Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss the case was based on the fact that they would have had to rule on new information. Since the lower courts had yet to deal with the information that the detainees had rejected two offers of resettlement in neutral countries. Then to make matters worse the Supreme Court glossed over another important issue in the case dealing with separation of powers. A lower court had determined it to be within a federal judge’s jurisdiction to release detainees into the United States if they were found to be being held illegally. This decision was overturned by the DC Circuit court. The DC court claimed that that kind of decision could only be made by either the legislative or executive branch. Instead of dealing with the issue at hand the Supreme Court voided the previous rulings and sent the case back down to the lower courts to be re-decided.
Tags: detention, habeas corpus, Supreme Court
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