No Thoughts on Alsabri--Which is a Thought of Its Own

Having disgraced myself by missing the argument in Alsabri, I figured I should at least read the opinion. It is a mark of how far the D.C. Circuit has come in establishing the contours of the law of detention that, having now done so, I have almost nothing to say about the case. The opinion by Judge Merrick Garland for a unanimous panel holds exactly what one would have predicted--that the conduct to which Mashour Abdullah Muqbel Alsabri had admitted reasonably gives rise to his detainability and that his legal complaints about the district court's handling of his case are foreclosed by circuit precedent. Writes Judge Garland:

we discern no clear error in the district court’s findings “that the petitioner traveled to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban or al-Qaida, stayed at Taliban or al-Qaida guesthouses, received military training at [an] al-Qaida facility, traveled to the battle lines” of the Taliban’s fight against the Northern Alliance, and did not “dissociate[ from] these enemy forces at any point prior to his capture.” 764 F. Supp. 2d at 96. And like the district court, we conclude that “[e]ven if none of these findings would independently justify his detention, viewed as a whole, they plainly establish that the petitioner was "part of the Taliban, al-Qaida or associated enemy" forces, so as to render his detention lawful under the AUMF. Id.

That the Guantanamo habeas cases are becoming so predictable as to warrant no analysis or comment is itself worthy of comment. It's a remarkable change. The D.C. Circuit has taken a lot of criticism for its handling of these cases. With the notable exception of my expressed dismay over Latif, I am in the main more admiring of the court than is the conventional wisdom. It has brought analytical clarity to a body of law that was previously all over the place. It has given guidance to the lower court judges as to how to handle cases in the future. It has made cases predictable. It has, quite simply, said what the law is. And the result is that cases like Alsabri's--once notable--are now boring. That's no small accomplishment--though it admittedly don't make for great blog posts.