Amicus Brief Filed For Al Marri and Berman

A friend of the court brief has been filed for Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri and Mark Berman. Both men are under indefinite detention as "enemy combatants. Eight former administrators from the Department of Justice are signatories of the brief.

Quoted from the brief

W. Thomas Dillard was United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee in 1981 and the Northern District of Florida from 1983 to 1986.

Saul Green was United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan from 1994 to 2001.

Philip A. Lacovara was Deputy Solicitor General of the United States in charge of criminal and internal security cases before the Supreme Court from 1972 to 1973, and Counsel to the Special Prosecutor, Watergate Special Prosecution Force from 1973 to 1974.

Scott R. Lassar was United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1997 to 2001.

David L. Lillehaug was the United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota from 1994 to 1998.

Janet Reno served as Attorney General of the United States from 1993 to 2001. She was the State Attorney of the Eleventh Judicial District of Florida from 1978 to 1993.

Thomas P. Sullivan was United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1977 to 1981.

Anton R. Valukas was United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1985 to 1989.

The brief lays out the cases of Al Marri and Berman and argues that the Justice System is well capable of trying the cases of those accused of planning and/or committing terrorist acts. In declaring these men as "enemy combatants" :

... the government is essentially asserting the right to hold putative enemy combatants arrested in the United States indefinitely whenever it decides not to prosecute those people criminally--perhaps because it would be too difficult to obtain a conviction, perhaps because a motion to suppress evidence would raise embarrassing facts about the government's conduct, or perhaps for other reasons.

The 22 page amicus brief is a stunning argument against the denial of legal rights, the Military Commissions Act, and the strategy the Bush administration has pushed to create this special category where the laws and Constitution of the United States does not stand.

I encourage people to read the entire brief. It is an amazing document.
Here is a copy from the Washington Post, and here is a local copy.