Sealed DOJ Motion to Seal Public Transcript OK'd Sans Opinion by DC Circuit in Gitmo Case
An already convoluted case concerning the power of federal courts to intervene in government decisions about where to transfer detainees from the Guantanamo Bay military prison has been further complexified by an unusual effort to seal the transcript of a public appellate court hearing in the case.
The motion to seal the transcript of an April 22 public oral argument in Kiyemba v. Obama was filed under seal April 27 by the U.S. Department of Justice, reports the Blog of Legal Times. The motion was granted, without any publicly filed opinion to explain why, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on April 27.
But then the DOJ filed another motion under seal May 6 seeking to seal only part of the public April 22 oral argument transcript, the blog recounts. The D.C. Circuit was set to hold a closed hearing on the motion tomorrow, then canceled the hearing late today on the court’s own motion. There was no explanation of whether it would be rescheduled.
In the underlying case, the U.S. Supreme Court in March refused to review the D.C. Circuit’s decision almost a year earlier restricting federal judges from intervening in detainee transfer decisions by government officials.
However, the D.C. Circuit effectively revived the issue on its own. It has ordered the DOJ, in a different case that presents similar issues, to offer its views on whether the federal appeals court should reconsider, en banc, its April 2009 ruling in case informally known as Kiyemba II, reports SCOTUSblog.
Additional coverage:
ABA Journal: “Whither the Uighurs?”
SCOTUSblog (March 2010): “Victory for U.S. on detainees”
