[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Tuesday granted certiorari [orders list, PDF] in two cases. In Kiyemba v. Obama [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the court will consider whether a group of 13 Uighur Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees can be released into the US. In February, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] reversed [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] an October 2008 district court order [opinion and order, PDF; JURIST report] that would have provided for their release. The DC Circuit found that admission of aliens into the US was a decision for either the executive or legislative branch, and no statutory or constitutional right was being denied to the detainees. Last month, US Solicitor General Elena Kagan told the Supreme Court that the US plans to transfer [JURIST report] up to eight of the remaining 13 Uighur detainees to Palau and that six have already agreed to the transfer. According to the letter, the government of Palau is willing to accept 12 of the 13 Uighurs still at Guantanamo. Four Uighur detainees were transferred to Bermuda [JURIST report] in June.

The court also agreed to hear the consolidated cases of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha v. Regal-Beloit Corp. [docket; cert. petition, PDF] and Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Regal-Beloit Corp [docket; cert. petition, PDF]. The court will consider whether the Carmack Amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 [49 USC § 11706] applies to the inland rail transportation of goods in the US that originate out of the country when the shipment involved an extension of the Carriage of Good by Sea Act (COGSA) [46 USC § 30701]. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] found [opinion, PDF] that the district court did not consider whether the parties had properly opted out of the Carmack Act, without which the COGSA does not apply.