On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Urges U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Uighur Detention Case, Calls on Obama Administration to Release Chinese Muslims
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Rutherford Institute, along with other non-governmental organizations, has filed a friend of the court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court urging the Court to accept review of a case in which 17 Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, seek release from Guantanamo now that they have been recognized not to be enemy combatants. The brief urges the Court to take the case, Kiyemba v. Obama, and reverse the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that the courts lack the authority to order the release of the Uighurs. The groups argue that in order to give effect to the Supreme Court's 2008 Boumediene decision recognizing the rights of Guantanamo detainees to file habeas corpus petitions, courts must have the power to order the release of detainees admitted not to be enemy combatants.
The Rutherford Institute filed the brief along with the Constitution Project, the Brennan Center for Justice, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the City of New York Bar Association. The Rutherford Institute has also called on the Obama administration to release the Uighurs from Guantanamo without waiting for action by the Supreme Court.
A copy of the brief is available at here.
"The courts, the United States military, and the former administration under President Bush have long recognized that these men are not 'enemy combatants,' and do not pose a threat to the United States," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "When our government lacks a legal basis to detain people and there is no evidence that they pose a threat to the United States, they should be released promptly. It is our hope that the Obama administration and the Supreme Court will act justly in this matter."
On October 8, 2008, District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ordered that the Uighurs be released because "the Constitution prohibits indefinite detention without cause." Even so, the Bush Administration continued to argue that only the political branches have the authority to decide to release detainees. Although the Administration admitted that the Uighur detainees are not enemy combatants, it cannot repatriate them to China because of state-sponsored persecution and it has not found another country willing to accept them. In November 2008, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute and other concerned organizations filed a friend of the court brief with the Court of Appeals. In February 2009, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned Judge Urbina's order to release the Uighurs. Senior Circuit Judge Raymond Randolph and Circuit Judge Karen Henderson found that a habeas court cannot order an alien held by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay be released into the U.S. without specific authorizing legislation. Circuit Judge Judith Rogers disagreed, arguing that majority's opinion would compromise the writ of habeas corpus' role as a check on arbitrary detention, but concurred that the case should be remanded for argument over whether the Executive branch has a valid alternative basis for detention.
