Thursday, February 19, 2009

Another day, another DOJ motion in a civilian contractor habeas case

We previously discussed the habeas petition in the civilian contractor case of Adolph v. Gates, No. 1:09-CV-00135 (EGS). Today DOJ filed this motion for extension of time in the habeas case noting that Adolph has been indicted under MEJA in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma for the same alleged offenses for which DOD was holding him in Kuwait. As a result, Secretary Gates has "withheld court-martial proceedings against Petitioner." U.S. Marshals are expected to take Adolph from Kuwait to Oklahoma no later than 2 March. "In light of these developments," DOJ observes, "this litigation may soon be resolved without the need for judicial action on Petitioner’s Amended Petition."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did policymakers ever expect the court-martial of civilians to be upheld as constitutional, or was it created as a mechanism to temporarily detain them in military custody for circumstances exactly like this?

Anonymous said...

Probably waiting on the right case to test. This dude was in Kuwait rather than Iraq or Afghanistan, thus that creates an issue within the issue (Kuwait is not a "contingency operation") - however the overall big picture is in "support of" a contingency operation.

Is the Indictment available for download?

Anonymous said...

MEJA and DoD regulations there under allow for apprehension and temp detention for civiains so UCMJ jurisdiction was not needed for that.