Thread: Judge snubs admin. on Gitmo files

Judge snubs admin. on Gitmo files

By JOSH GERSTEIN
6/9/09 11:12 PM EDT


President Barack Obama's plan to empty the Guantanamo Bay prison appeared to suffer another blow. Photo: AP

President Barack Obama’s plan to empty the Guantanamo Bay prison appeared to suffer another blow on Tuesday, after a federal judge bluntly rejected the administration’s plea to limit access to information gathered by a presidential task force reviewing the cases of the 240 men detained there.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan also accused the government of dragging its feet and gave Justice Department lawyers a tongue-lashing for failing to comply with existing court orders dating as far back as February.

In a sharply worded ruling from the bench, Hogan said he was unconvinced that sharing the task force information with detainees’ lawyers would interfere with the reviews Obama has ordered as part of his plan to close the prison camp by January. The judge also said the court could not be in a position of denying detainees the right to use information that could help their cases.

“I see no reason why the court can’t move ahead with its litigation promptly, just because of discovery from one database that would somehow bring to a halt all the president’s efforts,â€

[b]“The president’s executive order you feel trumps the Supreme Court’s order?â€