Vladeck on the Impact of Justice Kagan's Recusals in GTMO-Related Cases

Robert Chesney
Thursday, January 13, 2011, 12:14 AM
Steve Vladeck has a good post up noting that Justice Kagan has to recuse from most if not all the GTMO-related cases that are percolating up, and that as a result there's relatively little prospect of getting five votes to overturn the various pro-government decisions that have been emerging out of the D.C.

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Steve Vladeck has a good post up noting that Justice Kagan has to recuse from most if not all the GTMO-related cases that are percolating up, and that as a result there's relatively little prospect of getting five votes to overturn the various pro-government decisions that have been emerging out of the D.C. Circuit.  This sounds exactly right to me (though I don't at all agree with Steve's characterization of the Circuit's opinions as having "actively subverted" Boumediene), and it furthers my belief that when all is said and done in the GTMO habeas cases the government will have fared much better than seemed would be the case when the first spate of pro-detainee district court decisions emerged.

Robert (Bobby) Chesney is the Dean of the University of Texas School of Law, where he also holds the James A. Baker III Chair in the Rule of Law and World Affairs at UT. He is known internationally for his scholarship relating both to cybersecurity and national security. He is a co-founder of Lawfare, the nation’s leading online source for analysis of national security legal issues, and he co-hosts the popular show The National Security Law Podcast.

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