The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

DOJ Appeals Order Blocking Guantanamo Groin Searches

Updated at 2:34 p.m.

Update: The D.C. Circuit this afternoon granted the government's emergency motion for a stay. The order puts on hold a ruling blocking groin searches of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

The U.S. Justice Department will challenge a court order barring officials at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility from administering invasive groin searches of detainees before they can meet or speak with their lawyers.

The government today filed a notice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging the trial court order. Yesterday, DOJ lawyers asked U.S. District Senior Judge Royce Lamberth to stay his July 11 order as the government pursues the appeal. In the D.C. Circuit, the government today asked for an administrative stay, which would temporarily block Lamberth’s order.

DOJ lawyers said in their court papers Tuesday that compliance with the judge’s order "would have severe consequences to the safe operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility."

Judge Halts Invasive Searches of Guantanamo Detainees

A Washington federal judge today blocked the U.S. Department of Defense from requiring detainees at Guantanamo Bay to undergo groin searches before meeting or speaking with their attorneys.

Calling the genital-area searches "yet another exaggerated response" by officials who manage the detention facility in Cuba, U.S. District Chief Judge Royce Lamberth found the new policy actively discouraged detainees from communicating with counsel.

"As petitioners’ counsel argued, the choice between submitting to a search procedure that is religiously and culturally abhorrent or foregoing counsel effectively presents no choice for devout Muslims like petitioners," Lamberth wrote.

Civil Rights Groups Celebrate Supreme Court Rulings

Updated at 12:42 p.m.

Today's U.S. Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage were met with cheers of "victory" from civil rights organizations nationwide, while conservative groups maintained the decisions left the national debate over gay marriage unresolved.

"Today’s historic decisions put two giant cracks in the dark wall of discrimination that separates committed gay and lesbian couples from full equality," said Chad Griffin, president of the gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, in a statement.

The high court struck down as unconstitutional a section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act denying federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples in states that permitted gay marriage. In a separate case, the court let stand a lower court ruling barring enforcement of California's ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8.

Judge: Russia Acting Like 'Scofflaw' and 'Outlaw'

It's been more than five months since a Washington federal judge ordered sanctions of $50,000 per day against the Russian government for refusing to turn over thousands of Jewish religious texts seized in the early 20th century. After hearing testimony this morning that Russia had continued to disobey his order, U.S. District Chief Judge Royce Lamberth said the country was acting as a "scofflaw" and an "outlaw."

Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the United States sued Russia beginning in 2004 for the return of the texts, which included an estimated 12,000 books and manuscripts taken during a period of civil unrest in Russia and more than 25,000 pages of handwritten texts taken by the Soviet Red Army as war loot from the Nazis. In 2010, Lamberth ordered Russia to return the collection. After several years of noncompliance, the judge ordered civil contempt sanctions on January 16.

Since then, the plaintiffs have asked for a series of continuances in the case as the U.S. Department of State engaged in direct negotiations with the Russian government. Today, lead plaintiffs' counsel, Nathan Lewin of Washington's Lewin & Lewin, asked for another continuance until August, saying it would help facilitate the ongoing talks.

Judge Dismisses Torture Lawsuit Against North Korea

A Washington federal judge dismissed a civil terrorism lawsuit against the North Korean government on Friday, finding the family of a man who went missing near the North Korean border with China failed to present enough evidence of torture.

The family of Reverend Kim Dong Shik sued the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in April 2009, seeking damages under the terrorism exception to the federal Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Shik's family claimed Shik was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by starvation. The North Korean government never participated in the case and the clerk entered a default against the country in May 2010.

Shik's family moved for a default judgment in their favor. U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts denied the request on June 14, finding that although there was evidence North Korean officials tortured prisoners, there wasn't specific evidence about Shik's treatment.

Judge Awards $40.5 Million in 30-Year Iranian Dairy Dispute

Just as the mythological Greek king Sisyphus was doomed to forever roll a boulder up a hill, only to watch it fall as he reached the summit, a 30-year dispute over interests in an Iranian dairy seemed destined to make endless trips to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit without resolution.

But in an opinion today, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote that he hoped he was near the end of litigation that the D.C. Circuit once described as "Sisyphean labor." Following a D.C. Circuit opinion last February finding that U.S. courts did have jurisdiction over the case, Leon today ordered Iran to pay $40.5 million in damages, interest and attorney fees to plaintiff McKesson Corp.

Leon may not get his wish just yet, however. A lead attorney for Iran, Christopher Wright of Wiltshire & Grannis, said in an email that "Iran is reviewing the court’s decision and considering whether to appeal." Mark Bravin of Winston & Strawn, lead counsel for McKesson, declined to comment.

The Morning Wrap

Layoffs: With layoffs running rampant at Allen & Overy, DLA Piper, and Eversheds, The American Lawyer asks whether U.S. law firms will be next. "These are not outliers. They're not anomalies," Zeughauser Group consultant Kent Zimmermann said of the recent layoffs. "It is something that's happening quietly in many, many firms in the industry."

Contraception Battles: Roman Catholics, evangelicals and Mennonites are flooding courts with challenges to a provision in the new health care law that requires employers to cover birth control in worker health plans, The New York Times reports. "This is highly likely to end up at the Supreme Court," said Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia and one of the country’s top scholars on church-state conflicts. "There are so many cases, and we are already getting strong disagreements among the circuit courts."

Stepping Down: Lisa Gomer, the general counsel of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is leaving the agency on February 9 amid an ongoing probe into alleged contract rigging, Corporate Counsel reports. Gomer’s attorney, David Schertler of Schertler & Onorato, said his client "did not violate any law." He added that she "cooperated completely" with the Office of Inspector General investigation, according to an emailed statement.

Judge Weighs Sanctions Against Russia In Dispute Over Religious Texts

In a long-running legal fight over Jewish religious texts seized in the early twentieth century, a Washington federal judge heard arguments today on whether to levy civil contempt sanctions against Russia for refusing to obey an order to return the texts.

There were two sides arguing in court today, but neither was the Russian government. The plaintiffs, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, won a judgment in 2010 that the texts belonged to them but have since unsuccessfully tried to get them back. The U.S. Department of Justice argued today against sanctions, telling U.S. District Chief Judge Royce Lamberth that such an order would run afoul of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and threaten U.S. foreign policy interests.

The dispute is over books and manuscripts seized during a period of civil unrest in Russia and thousands of pages of texts stolen by the Nazis during the invasion of Poland in 1941 and later taken as "war booty" by the Soviet Red Army. The texts have remained in Russia, although the plaintiffs alleged at one point that pages were ending up on the black market.

In 'Defeat Jihad' Lawsuit, WMATA Paid $35K in Attorney Fees and Costs

After a Washington federal judge ruled last month that local public transit officials ran afoul of the First Amendment in delaying the posting of a controversial advertisement in rail stations, the agency agreed to pay $35,000 in attorney fees and costs to the group behind the ad, according to a document (PDF) recently obtained by Legal Times.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative, a New York-based organization, sued the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in September after learning that the agency was postponing the ads. The ad read: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man," with the tag, "Support Israel/Defeat Jihad."

WMATA lawyers argued that they had a "compelling" interest in delaying the ad because it posed a threat to public safety, but AFDI claimed that by indefinitely delaying the ad, the agency was in violation of the First Amendment. In early October, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that while the ad did have elements of hate speech, it was nonetheless protected under the First Amendment and ordered WMATA to post it.

Appeals Court Rejects Inmate's Requests in Religious Practice Dispute

In a dispute over religious practices, a federal appeals court in Richmond today upheld a ruling that has prevented a state prisoner from creating an "outdoor worship circle" featuring one thousand pounds of small stones.

The inmate, Johan Krieger, who is serving time in a state facility in North Carolina, argued that prison officials have unfairly denied his requests for "sacred items" and a worship circle outside, violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

A federal trial judge concluded that Krieger failed to show how the practice of his religion, which is called Asatru, was harmed by the lack of a worship circle outdoors. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the decision.

The appeals court described Asatru as a polytheistic religion with origins in Northern Europe. The court said "Asatru is a decentralized religion, which does not have a spiritual leader or a governing religious authority."