No Sealing of Opinion Related to Guantanamo Detainee (Now Released to Oman)
From Abdullah v. Trump, decided in March by Judge Emmet Sullivan (D.D.C.), and reaffirmed Sunday (with a comment that “in the nearly four months since the Court gave Mr. Abdullah that opportunity, he has not sought to redact any information”):
On December 31, 2024, this Court denied two motions filed by Mr. Abdullah seeking his immediate release from Guantanamo Bay. The Court posted the Order accompanying the Memorandum Opinion on the public docket but posted the Memorandum Opinion under seal and directed the parties to post a public version on the public docket within fourteen days.
On January 6, 2025, Mr. Abdullah appealed the Court’s denial of his two motions …. On January 7, 2025, the government filed a notice that it had transferred Mr. Abdullah to Oman. The same day, this Court entered an order denying Mr. Abdullah’s Motion for Order Granting Writ of Habeas Corpus as moot ….
On January 28, 2025, [having gotten an extension,] the government filed the redacted public version of the Memorandum Opinion [available here -EV]. Two days later, Mr. Abdullah filed his Motion to Seal in which he asks the Court to permanently seal the Memorandum Opinion ….
Mr. Abdullah’s two main arguments for the Court to seal its Memorandum Opinion are that public release after the Memorandum Opinion became unreviewable as moot would: (1) be an impermissible advisory opinion under Article III of the United States Constitution; and (2) “shred what remains” of Mr. Abdullah’s privacy interests….
Mr. Abdullah confuses the clearly established Article III limits that relate to whether this Court’s Order shoul
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