Appellee Brief Available in Khan v. Obama

Yesterday the public version of the government's response brief in Khan v. Obama (No. 10-5306), a Guantanamo habeas case currently pending before the D.C. Circuit, became available. In this case, petitioner Shawali Khan appeals Judge John Bates’s September 2010 decision denying Khan the writ of habeas corpus. The petitioner challenges the sufficiency of the government's evidence on several key issues, including whether Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, the organization to which Judge Bates found Khan to have belonged, was an "associated force engaged in hostilities with the United States and its coalition partners" at the time of Khan's capture in November 2002. The government frames the question presented as:

Whether the district court correctly held that Khan is lawfully detained because he was, when captured in 2002, part of Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), an organization that operated as an associated force of the Taliban and al-Qaida in hostilities against the United States and its coalition partners.

The petitioner's opening brief is here. Oral argument in the case is scheduled for May 13, 2011 before Judges Sentelle, Ginsburg, and Garland.