* Ameziane v. Obama (D.C. Circ. Oct. 6, 2010)
The Circuit has released a panel opinion holding that Judge Huvelle erred by denying a government motion to treat certain information as “protected” (and hence not disclosable beyond the judge and the detainee’s counsel) in connection with a GTMO habeas proceeding. Details, including a link to the opinion and some extended commentary from me, are here. The long and short of it, though, is that the panel held that Judge Huvelle should not have insisted upon receiving an explanatory declaration that specified not just how disclosure of a particular category of information would be harmful but also how disclosure of such information in this particular instance would be, and also that she erred by not deferring to the executive branch’s assessment of the risk of harm once a proper explanation was offered.
By Robert M. Chesney
Robert M. Chesney is Charles I. Francis Professor in Law at UT-Austin School of Law. Chesney is a national security law specialist, with a particular interest in problems associated with terrorism. Professor Chesney recently served in the Justice Department in connection with the Detainee Policy Task Force created by Executive Order 13493. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security, a senior editor for the Journal of National Security Law & Policy, an associate member of the Intelligence Science Board, a non-resident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the American Law Institute. Professor Chesney has published extensively on topics ranging from detention and prosecution in the counterterrorism context to the states secrets privilege. He served previously as chair of the Section on National Security Law of the Association of American Law Schools and as editor of the National Security Law Report (published by the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security). His upcoming projects include two books under contract with Oxford University Press, one concerning the evolution of detention law and policy and the other examining the judicial role in national security affairs.
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