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: Lawbeat

Secret justice? WaPo shrugs; Times shines a light

By Mark Obbie

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Should readers care whether justice is determined in secret? You'll get opposing answers to that question by looking at today's New York Times and Washington Post. In the first habeas corpus hearings for Guantanamo detainees in a federal court, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington, D.C., heard opening arguments in open court in a case concerning the government's detention of six Algerians. Del Quentin Wilber's story in the Post follows the back and forth of the arguments, and the background of the case, but in the seventh graf drops this little mention in a single sentence:

Most of the proceedings will be closed to the public because lawyers will be discussing classified material.

The Times' William Glaberson clearly considered that move worth more scrutiny. In his second graf, he notes that the arguments were stripped of mentions of the evidence, and that the courtroom was closed for the real hearing. He then explains in detail what will or won't be kept secret -- not just from the public, but from the detainees, their lawyers, and even from the judge -- and quotes a critic as saying that the government, having failed to evade judicial scrutiny, is now trying to avoid public scrutiny (a charge answered by a government source who defends the classification decisions as necessary). Glaberson closes his story with this remarkable detail:

In the case that began Thursday, government lawyers appear to be taking few chances that the men will be freed.They have filed a sealed envelope of evidence with Judge Leon, which the detainees’ lawyers have not been permitted to see. In court filings the government lawyers said that if the evidence in the closed hearings was not enough to justify the detention, then the judge should open the envelope.Judge Leon, the filing said, “may very well ultimately face the circumstance where the information justifying detention is too sensitive” to share not only with the detainees but also with their lawyers.

Glaberson's just-the-facts tone does not take sides, but he and his editors deserve credit for shedding as much light as possible on how this case is being handled.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).