Supreme Court declines to hear Guantanamo detainee habeas appeals News
Supreme Court declines to hear Guantanamo detainee habeas appeals

[JURIST] A divided US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] Monday denied petitions for certiorari [PDF text] in two cases brought by Guantanamo Bay detainees seeking habeas corpus review of their detentions. The petitions for certiorari came in the cases of Boumedienne v. Bush and al Odah v. United States, where the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in February upheld [PDF text; JURIST report] the habeas-stripping provision of the controversial Military Commissions Act [PDF text; JURIST news archive] as applied to "enemy combatants."

Four members of the Court must agree to accept a case, but only three – Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter – voted to grant certiorari and dissented [PDF text] from the Court's decision not to hear the appeal. Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, as well as Chief Justice John Roberts, voted to reject the appeals. Justices Anthony Kennedy and John Paul Stevens filed a separate statement [PDF text] in which they explained they were rejecting the appeals merely on procedural grounds. AP has more. SCOTUSblog has additional coverage. Bloomberg has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in Six Days' War

On November 22, 1967, the UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied during the Six Days' War, and for respect of the right of all States in the area to "live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries." Read Resolution 242, which remains a cornerstone of efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East.

President Kennedy assassinated, VP Lyndon Johnson sworn inin

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Later that day, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was later tasked with leading a commission to investigate the assassination. President Johnson received the final report of the Warren Commission on September 24, 1964. Read the Warren Commission Report.