On The Front Lines
VICTORY: U.S. Supreme Court Orders Fourth Circuit to Vacate Enemy Combatant Ruling in Case of U.S. Resident Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri
WASHINGTON, DC --The U.S. Supreme Court has vacated a lower court decision giving the president the extraordinary power to seize and indefinitely detain U.S. citizens or residents without charge or trial. In vacating the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit's decision in al-Marri v. Spagone, the Supreme Court has dismissed the case as moot.
Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute and the Constitution Project filed a joint amicus brief with the Court on behalf of U.S. resident Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, asking the high court to ensure that the president's power, even in wartime, stems from the Constitution or Congress. The Rutherford Institute, an international civil liberties organization, and the Constitution Project, an independent bipartisan think tank, both seek to promote and defend constitutional safeguards and civil liberties.
A copy of the amicus brief is available at here.
"As our nation works to confront the challenges of maintaining security in an age of global terrorism, it is especially critical that we remain committed to safeguarding our constitutional rights and preserving the separation of powers," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "To this end, it is imperative that we ensure that the President's power--even in wartime--stems either from an act of Congress or from the Constitution itself."
Al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident, was arrested at his home in Peoria, Illinois, and was transferred to military detention in South Carolina. He has been held for the past five years on the Bush administration's pronouncement that he is an "enemy combatant" and that the executive branch has inherent and statutory authority to detain civilians within the United States on that basis. In July 2008, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in a fractured decision that the president had legal authority to imprison al-Marri indefinitely without charge.
In challenging the Fourth Circuit's ruling, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute and the Constitution Project urged the Supreme Court to review the claims of Executive power, which test the constitutional limits of executive detention authority. Al-Marri was also recently charged by the Obama administration with conspiracy and material support for terrorism. Administration officials also indicated that they plan to prosecute al-Marri in a civilian criminal court. Thus, in light of the Supreme Court's order to vacate the Fourth Circuit's ruling, al-Marri, who had alleged that neither federal law nor the Constitution authorize his imprisonment, will now be transferred out of the military brig and will have the opportunity to defend himself in court and to invoke the criminal justice protections the Constitution provides.
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