New Habeas Cert. Petitions, Al Kandari Appeals

This past week two detainees who lost their habeas merits appeals before the D.C. Circuit filed petitions for certiorari—Ghaleb Nassar Al Bihani and Adham Mohammed Ali Awad. Broadly speaking, Al Bihani's challenge involves several arguments about the substantive and temporal scope of the government's detention authority, while Awad's petition raises procedural arguments focusing on the admission of hearsay, a petitioner's ability to call witnesses, and the use of the preponderance standard. Also, Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari, a detainee who lost his merits case before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly back in August, appealed to the D.C. Circuit.  Al Kandari's appeal means an update to the numbers breakdown of the habeas merits cases:

• Uighur cases in which detention was deemed or conceded unlawful: 17 • Petitioners’ district-court wins pending at D.C. Circuit: 6 • Petitioners’ district-court wins not appealed by the government: 12 • Petitioners’ appellate-court wins resulting in a remand to district court, with remand still pending: 1 • Petitioners’ merits wins at D.C. Circuit: 0 • Petitioner’s district-court wins in which the D.C. Circuit dismissed the appeal: 1 • Government’s district-court wins pending at D.C. Circuit: 12 • Government’s district-court wins that will likely be appealed: 1 • Government’s appellate-court wins resulting in a remand to district court, with remand still pending: 1 • Government’s merits wins at D.C. Circuit: 5 • Government’s district-court wins in which the D.C. Circuit dismissed the appeal as moot: 1 • Post-Boumediene merits decisions in which cert. has been granted or denied: 0