A misbegotten court

Prof. Steve Vladeck

Global Military Justice Reform contributor Steve Vladeck puts the stake through the heart of the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review in this must-read Just Security post. Excerpt:

What Friday's ruling [by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Khadr] really underscores, once again, is how misbegotten an experiment the Court of Military Commission Review, specifically, has turned out to be. In a nutshell, not only does the CMCR suffer from inherent structural flaws that the political branches seem uninterested in fixing, but its substantive role in the military commission process has turned out to be not only woefully inefficient, but affirmatively counter-productive from both the government's and the defendants' perspectives. Simply put, the CMCR has become an object lesson in how not to create new non-Article III federal courts — and an expensive one, at that.

Strong message follows.