-Caveat Lector-
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--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector- New York Times, 27 August 2002.
Federal Court Backs Open Hearings on Deportation
[Excerpts.]
CINCINNATI -- The federal appeals court in Cincinnati declared yesterday that the Bush administration acted unlawfully in holding hundreds of deportation hearings in secret based only on the government's assertion that the people involved may have links to terrorism.
The decision, which was laced with stinging language questioning the administration's commitment to an open democracy, is the first major appellate ruling on the government's legal tactics concerning Sept. 11.
"Democracies die behind closed doors," wrote Judge Damon J. Keith for the unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
The Bush administration has sought, the panel said, to place its actions "beyond public scrutiny."
"When the government begins closing doors," the panel continued, "it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people. Selective information is misinformation."
The case was brought by four Michigan newspapers and Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan. They sought to attend deportation hearings concerning Rabih Haddad, a Muslim clergyman who had overstayed his tourist visa.
In April, a federal district judge in Detroit rejected the government's argument that it should be allowed to decide which hearings must be closed without presenting arguments and evidence to immigration judges.
In similar decisions that have yet to be tested on appeal, trial court judges in Newark and Washington have also recently ordered the government to open hearings and release information about people held in connection with terrorism investigations.
According to information provided by the Justice Department last month, 752 people were detained on immigration violations in connection with Sept. 11 investigations. As of late June, 81 remained in custody. The rest were released or deported.
"The panel was offended by the government's attempt to hide behind national security to strip us of our freedoms," said Herschel P. Fink, who represented The Detroit Free Press in the case.
A broader case on the same issues will be heard by the federal appeals court in Philadelphia next month. In that case, a Newark judge ordered that all deportations nationwide be opened to public scrutiny unless the government offered proof, case by case, of why secrecy was needed.
The decision rejected administration arguments that tried to distinguish immigration hearings, which are conducted within the executive branch, from trials conducted by the judicial branch.
The court held that deportation hearings look and feel like trials. They are, Judge Keith wrote, "exceedingly formal and adversarial."
Indeed, said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union who represented some of the plaintiffs, "there is perhaps even greater reason to have public scrutiny of deportation hearings."
"There is no jury," Mr. Gelernt added, "and the defendants will often not have counsel. They're facing trained prosecutors, and they're often very literally sitting there all by themselves."
The appeals court decision was also notable, experts said, for a warm embrace of news organizations not seen in most courts since the Vietnam and Watergate eras. The public, the court wrote, has deputized the press "as the guardians of their liberty."
Judge Keith wrote "A government operating in the shadow of secrecy stands in complete opposition to the society envisioned by the framers of our Constitution."
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
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