Neil Gorsuch Helped Defend Disputed Bush-Era Terror Policies

Friday, 17 March 2017 08:47

Savage writes: "An email from Judge Gorsuch, nominated by President Trump to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, linked to articles about a less-noticed provision in the act that undercut the rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees by barring courts from hearing their habeas corpus lawsuits."

Judge Neil M. Gorsuch spent 14 months as a key Justice Department official during the Bush administration and dealt with matters related to the war on terror. (photo: Al Drago/The New York Times)

Neil Gorsuch Helped Defend Disputed Bush-Era Terror Policies

By Charlie Savage, The New York Times

17 March 17

n December 2005, Congress handed President George W. Bush a significant defeat by tightening legal restrictions against torture in a law called the Detainee Treatment Act. Soon afterward, Neil M. Gorsuch � then a top Justice Department official � sent an email to a White House colleague in case he needed �cheering up� about the administration�s setback.

The email from Judge Gorsuch, nominated by President Trump to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, linked to articles about a less-noticed provision in the act that undercut the rights of Guant�namo Bay detainees by barring courts from hearing their habeas corpus lawsuits.

�The administration�s victory is not well known but its significance shouldn�t be understated,� wrote Judge Gorsuch, who had helped coordinate the Justice Department�s work with Congress on the bill.

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