Tomorrow at the D.C. Circuit: Abdullah v. Obama

Tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m., a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit will hear oral argument in the Guantanamo habeas case of Abdullah v. Obama. Before Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, and Senior Circuit Judges Stephen F. Williams and A. Raymond Randolph, will be a debate over the district court's rejection of the Yemeni detainee's motion for a preliminary injunction.  Each side will have ten minutes to make its presentation. By way of summary, Abdullah's attorneys sought an injunction in 2010, in connection with his pending (and still unresolved) habeas proceeding; the motion long gathered dust, until the detainee's repeated filings in the district court and court of appeals prompted the former to deny the bid for preliminary relief.  The district court reasoned that Abdullah (among other things) had not explained why he was entitled to release in advance of the petition's resolution, or why such release was necessary to "effectuate habeas."  In short, Abdullah had not met the legal standard required for a preliminary injunction. The detainee's main legal argument was and is that a 1946 executive agreement between the U.S. and Yemen had called for each to treat the other's nationals in accordance with international law; that Abdullah is entitled to invoke the agreement; and that his Guantanamo detention violates international law.  Abdullah separately contends that later congressional statutes which run counter to his view of the Yemen agreement---including the Military Commissions Act of 2006---unconstitutionally infringe upon the President's recognition powers.