Please Hold Off on that Cert Petition
Counsel for Guantanamo habeas petitioners Uthman, Almerfedi, and Latif--all of whom have cert petitions pending or imminent--have asked the Supreme Court to hold off on deciding whether to grant until the petitions can be considered in concert. In a letter submitted on December 16, David Remes and William Livingston--who represent all three petitioners--write:
The Court is scheduled to consider the petition for certiorari in Uthman v.
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Counsel for Guantanamo habeas petitioners Uthman, Almerfedi, and Latif--all of whom have cert petitions pending or imminent--have asked the Supreme Court to hold off on deciding whether to grant until the petitions can be considered in concert. In a letter submitted on December 16, David Remes and William Livingston--who represent all three petitioners--write:
The Court is scheduled to consider the petition for certiorari in Uthman v. Obama, No. 11-413, at its conference of Jan. 6, 2012. In broad terms, the petitioner, a Guantanamo detainee, asks the Court to consider the proper standards for determining the lawfulness of detentions at the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities. A second Guantanamo detainee has also filed a petition for certiorari raising similar issues, Almerfedi v. Obama, No. 11-683 (filed Nov. 7, 2011); and on January 11, 2012, a third Guantanamo detainee will file a petition also raising similar issues, Latif v. Obama, D.C. Cir. No. 10-5319. Because the three cases present similar questions, we respectfully suggest that the Court hold the petitions in Uthman, No. 11-413, and Almerfedi, No. 11-683, for consideration with the petition to be filed in Latif.
Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books.
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