American Civil Liberties Union

Remember Mohammed Jawad? Captured when he was possibly as young as 14 years old, Jawad is one of two Guantánamo prisoners the U.S. is prosecuting for war crimes allegedly committed as a child, under the Bush administration’s failed and unconstitutional military commissions. It’s been a while since President Obama issued his Executive Order halting the Guantánamo commissions process, so to refresh your memory, recall that the secrecy — shrouded system allows the use of coerced statements and hearsay evidence. There is no question that the military commissions process is unlawful, and should not be resurrected in any way whatsoever.

Yesterday, The New Yorker's Jane Mayer reported that a federal grand jury in Peoria, Illinois was preparing to bring criminal terrorism charges against Ali al-Marri, the ACLU's client in a challenge to his indefinite detention before the Supreme Court. When al-Marri was first arrested, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on credit card fraud charges, but a few weeks before his case was to go to trial, President Bush stepped in, named al-Marri an "enemy combatant," and locked him in solitary confinement in a South Carolina Navy brig for more than five years. Terrorism charges—or charges that would somehow legitimize his "enemy combatant" status—were never brought against al-Marri. Until now.

This week's New Yorker features a story by the incomparable Jane Mayer about the ACLU's case on behalf of Ali al-Marri, which will be heard by the Supreme Court in April, barring any Obama administration actions like dropping the "enemy combatant" classification and reclassifying, charging him as a civilian, and renouncing the asserted executive detention power.