[L-I] Update on War At Home (America)

AP. 30 May 2002. Newspapers, Civil Rights Groups Win Legal Battle Over
Secret Deportation Hearings.

NEWARK, N.J. -- The government has been barred from enforcing its
blanket policy on secret deportation hearings for immigrants detained in
the terrorism investigation.

Chief U.S. District Judge John W. Bissell granted a preliminary
injunction in the case Wednesday, ruling that such hearings may only be
closed on a case-by-case basis by the judge conducting the proceeding.

Civil rights groups and two newspapers had requested the injunction.

In a Sept. 21 memorandum, the nation's chief immigration judge directed
immigration judges to close hearings involving detainees whose cases
have been designated of "special interest" to the FBI. The memo also
prohibited court administrators from listing the cases on dockets, or
confirming when hearings are to be held.

"Without an injunction, the government could continue to bar the public
and press from deportation proceedings without any particularized
showing of justification. This presents a clear case of irreparable harm
to a right protected by the First Amendment," Bissell wrote.

The Justice Department has not decided whether to appeal, spokesman
Charles Miller said.

As of Wednesday, 104 post-Sept. 11 detainees were in custody around the
nation, down from more than 700, Justice Department spokesman Dan Nelson
said. Most have been held in county jails in New Jersey. It was unclear
how many have been deported.

In another case in Washington, civil rights and public access groups
told a federal judge Wednesday that the Justice Department is ignoring
fundamental freedom of information laws by keeping secret the names of
those detained as part of the Sept. 11 investigation.

The case will likely decide how much the government can keep secret in
its effort to capture terrorists. U.S. District Court Judge Gladys
Kessler did not say when she would rule on the complaint.

In New Jersey, Bissell acted on a lawsuit that was filed March 6 by the
Newark chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the New
York-based Center For Constitutional Rights on behalf of the New Jersey
Law Journal, a weekly publication, and North Jersey Media Group,
publisher of the Herald News of West Paterson, a daily newspaper.

The newspapers' reporters tried to cover court hearings involving
detainees, but were barred from courtrooms, along with the rest of the
public.

"As important as the war on terrorism is, it doesn't supersede our
constitutional rights," Lawrence Lustberg, a lawyer for the newspapers,
said Wednesday.


-------------------------------------------
Macdonald Stainsby
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In the contradiction lies the hope.
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