DOJ Recommends Habeas Proceedings: Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog has a post on the Justice Department's recommendation to the D.C. Circuit to put the appeals of 190 detainees on hold, so that the detainees may go forward with their habeas claims in district court. The government's motion can be found here. According to Denniston, today's DOJ filing covers two types of appeals in the D.C. Circuit Court. The first appeals, "in abeyance," are from 190 detainees challenging their status as enemy combatants. The second type of appeal belongs to about 100 detainees who are challenging the denial of earlier habeas actions, as well as "challenging orders not to move detainees, or orders to give detainees’ lawyers notice before a prisoner is sent away from Guantanamo, plus some disputes over classified materials."

The Boumediene Decision and Supreme Court Appointees: Ed Whalen at Bench Memos has a post criticizing Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus' article "The Court McCain Wants." Whalen's post criticizes Marcus' article on grounds that "Marcus grossly misestimates how a well-informed public would assess the relative prospects of McCain and Obama appointees to the Court." To illustrate his point Whalen points to the column's discussion of: (1) Roe v. Wade, (2) how the Supreme Court is at a "tipping point on issues that range from the scope of presidential power to the separation of church and state to the future of affirmative action.”, and (3) the fact that Marcus has "ignored" "lots of other issues that Stuart Taylor has identified on which Supreme Court picks by Obama would present a real threat (in Taylor’s words) of further 'displacing democratic choices with made-up constitutional law'." This afternoon, Jonathan Adler at Volokh Conspiracy also weighed in on Whalen's critique.