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Judge Brinkema on the Adequacy of Trying Terrorists in District Court

By Jack M. Balkin

Last Friday, the Washington College of Law at American University convened a day-long conference devoted to recent proposals -- including most prominently that of our new Attorney General -- to create new, special "national security courts" to handle (i) detention decisions; and (ii) criminal trials, with respect to suspected al Qaeda operatives and associates.

One of the organizers of the conference, Steve Vladeck, is absolutely right that the highlight of the day was this informal lunchtime address by Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia, who has presided over several terrorism cases, including the Moussaoui and Al-Timimi cases. Judge Brinkema offered a very compelling case for why we should not move such cases out of our existing federal court system -- for why the tools available to good district judges are more than adequate to handle such cases; why the government itself was largely responsible for the celebrated yet avoidable "problems" in Moussaoui and other cases; and why it would be unwise to establish a specialized national security court, which she said "should send shivers down the spine" of the public (listen to the very end).

My colleague David Cole captured the sentiments of many in attendance when he stated at the very end of the session: "Judge Brinkema, I'd only be in favor of a National Security Court if you were the judge!"

Full post as published by Balkinization on February 04, 2008 (boomark / email).