Former Justice Department Officials File Amicus Brief in Terrorism Case

Former Attorney General Janet Reno has taken the unusual step of openly criticizing the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism strategy — joining seven other former Justice Department officials in warning that the indefinite detention of U.S. terrorism suspects could become commonplace unless the courts intervene. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case of alleged enemy combatant Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the former prosecutors assert that criminal courts are well equipped to prosecute terrorism suspects while guaranteeing the constitutional rights of defendants arrested on U.S. soil.

For a copy of the Washington Post story, click here.  For a link to the amicus brief of the former DOJ officials , click here.  For much more about this case, check out SCOTUS blog at http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2006/11/post_9.html  This blog has links to all of the amicus briefs in the case, including the Brief of Amici Curiae U.S. Criminal Scholars and Historians Advocating Reversal in Support of Petitioners.  This intriguing brief relies heavily on my colleague Carlton Larson’s recent article, The Forgotten Constitutional Law of Treason and the Enemy Combatant Problem, 154 U. Pa. L. Rev. 863 (2006). And who ever said that legal history — or, for that matter, legal scholarship generally — was not “relevant”?  🙂

KJ