Washington, DC | January 27, 2009 | www.adc.org | Today, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) joined four civil rights organizations in filing an Amicus Curiae brief (friend of the court brief) before the Supreme Court of the United States in support of a case seeking to challenge indefinite detention of individuals as enemy combatants.
The brief was filed with the Supreme Court of the United States. The organizations included in this filing are Muslim Advocates, The Sikh Coalition, The Japanese American Citizens League, The South Asian Americans Leading Together and The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Petitioner Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a national of Qatar, was arrested while lawfully present in the United States in December 2001 and later indicted on a number of federal criminal charges. A month before his criminal trial was scheduled to begin, the President declared al-Marri an “enemy combatant,” the criminal charges against him were dismissed, and al-Marri was placed in military detention, where he has remained, uncharged and untried with respect to any crime, since June 2003.
The case questions whether U.S. residents can be imprisoned for suspected wrongdoing without being charged with a crime and tried before a jury.
In joining the brief, ADC hopes the US Supreme Court will find that indefinite detention of so called enemy combatants without being charged, facing trial, or any end in sight is unconstitutional. ADC works with other civil rights organizations and coalitions on a multitude of issues that affect constitutional freedoms. ADC is committed to preserving the constitutional guarantees of due process to all and views those guarantees as elemental rights that form the key foundations of our nation. We believe that only by safeguarding due process rights for all individuals subject to the pendency of removal proceedings can the courts affirm the solidly American principles of constitutional democracy championed by our nation for decades.
To read the brief please see: https://www.adc.org/PDF/amicus.pdf