News
Government
Feb. 22, 2002
Judge Throws Out Suit Over Detainees
LOS ANGELES - In a closely watched case with international implications, a federal judge on Thursday dismissed a petition by a coalition of civil rights advocates to consider the treatment of prisoners at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz said that, while it was a close call, he agreed with the U.S. attorney's office that the petitioners lacked standing to represent the prisoners because they failed to show a "special relationship" to the detainees, whom the petitioners deemed inaccessible to other counsel.
Moreover, Matz ruled that even if the petitioners had standing, the federal courts lacked jurisdiction because the U.S. treaty gave sovereignty over the naval station to Cuba.
Prosecutors who argued against the petition could not be reached for comment on the decision. But they had argued that, along with court's lack of jurisdiction, the petitioners presented nothing to support speculation that the detainees are being treated improperly.
Notably absent at the proceedings was lead counsel Stephen Yagman, who made an unsuccessful attempt last week to have Matz recuse himself from the case on grounds that the judge's son works for the U.S. attorney's office.
After the hearing, Erwin Chemerinsky, who stood in for the controversial Venice civil rights attorney, said Yagman phoned him the night before from Colorado to say he was caught in a snowstorm and to ask the University of Southern California law professor to fill in.
Chemerinsky, who along with Yagman is also a petitioner in the case, said they would be appealing the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as soon as Yagman returns. Coalition of Clergy v. George Walker Bush, CV-570 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 22, 2002).
Chemerinsky said the question of jurisdiction will be a key issue.
As to standing, he said, "No court has ever denied 'next friend' standing in situations where an individual has no access to the court. We will argue on appeal that Judge Matz is wrong on the law."
In dismissing the petition, Matz said petitioners failed to demonstrate that they have standing to represent the detainees and that the prisoners are being denied access to counsel.
Calling the "hastily prepared petition far from a model of precision or clarity," Matz noted that the petitioners "at least" alleged that the detainees appear to be held incommunicado.
However, Matz said, the petitioners then contradict that assumption by supporting it with news articles that report the detainees having been allowed to contact family members.
Matz also wrote that the petitioners made no mention of a later report that the parents of three detainees since have filed suit on behalf of their sons.
Moreover, Matz said that the petitioners never tried to communicate with the detainees and hadn't been prevented from doing so.
As to the matter of jurisdiction, Matz referred to a 1903 lease agreement between the United States and Cuba, which extends sovereignty of the Guantanamo Bay naval station. The treaty also extends jurisdiction and control of the station to the United States. But, Matz said, the petitioners' argument that jurisdiction and control are equivalent to sovereignty is wrong.
The petitioners, called the Coalition of Clergy, Lawyers and Professors, consists of journalists, lawyers, rabbis, a Christian pastor and a former U.S. attorney general. In their writ of habeas corpus, they are demanding the identification and country of each detainee and the charges against them. The writ also demands that the men be brought before the Central District court for a hearing.
At latest count, more than 300 men are being held at the makeshift Cuban prison.
The petition represents the first challenge to the Bush administration's detention of al-Qaida suspects. Petitioners allege that the detainees are being denied their rights under the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.
But the administration has characterized some of the detainees as "unlawful combatants" and, as such, has said that they are not entitled to those rights.
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Susan Mcraen
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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