Court orders secret arguments on military detentions

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. this week decided to exclude the public from oral arguments concerning the legality of military detentions, The Blog of Legal Times reports.  

The arguments stem from a district court’s refusal to order the release of Belkacem Bensayah, a Guantanamo Bay detainee being held as an enemy combatant.

Department of Justice attorneys offered to argue Bensayah’s appeal in public as long as the courtroom could be cleared before classified information is discussed. But Bensayah’s lawyer objected that the appeal “cannot be meaningfully presented or assessed in open session, because oral argument necessarily will require reference to the classified record and the classified briefs.”