Abdah v. Obama (Al Latif) Appellant’s Brief Released

Today the D.C. Circuit released the public version of the appellant's brief in another habeas merits appeal, Abdah v. Obama, No. 10-5319. In this case, the government appeals Judge Henry Kennedy’s July 2010 opinion granting a writ of habeas corpus to petitioner Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif, a Yemeni national. (Al Latif was one of the petitioners in the Abdah case (No. 04-1254) in the district court.) The question presented in the brief is heavily redacted, but the government challenges Judge Kennedy's treatment of the evidence.  Essentially the government argues the judge gave too much credit to statements Al Latif made in a 2009 declaration and too little weight to material contained in various reports the government submitted in support of its claims that Al Latif was part of Taliban forces.  The court had discounted the government's primary submission, a particular report about which details are redacted. The government argues that Judge Kennedy "placed a special burden on the government to establish the accuracy of the report under a standard that was greater than a preponderance of the evidence.  From its summary of argument:

When the evidence is looked at together, a reasonable factfinder would have concluded that the earlier report was accurate and that Latif was part of Taliban Forces. Thus, this Court should reverse the grant of the writ in this case. At a minimum, however, this Court should remand to the district court, with instructions to render a clear finding regarding Latif's creditibilty and to consider all of the evidence together.