Legal News

Federal Judge Stops Genital Searches in Guantanamo
Download PDF
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

On Thursday, Royce Lambert, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington issued a 35-page opinion criticizing genital searches of prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay prison facilities, and ordered to use old search methods consisting of grasping the waistband and shaking a detainee’s trousers, instead of grasping genitals.

Detainees had complained to the court that recently the guards had started touching and holding the genitals of detainees and touching and probing anal areas during their searches. The searches were made in those cases where the detainees wanted to meet their lawyers. Some detainees gave up meeting lawyers because they refused to undergo genital searches.

  
What
Where


While the government argued that detainees might be hiding things in their genital areas, the judge observed that repeated instances of government actions attempting to deter detainee access to lawyers “substantially increase the likelihood that its justification is mere pretext and that the new searches represent an ‘exaggerated response’ to its legitimate interest in security of the detention facility.”

Besides strictly ordering to end the genital searches, the court ordered the prison commanders to allow detainees weakened by their hunger strike, or those having a medical condition making travel difficult, to meet lawyers at the housing camp. Over 100 of the 166 prisoners in Guantanamo are on a hunger strike for the last four months to protest their long detention and uncertain terms of detention without conviction on suspected crimes.

The judge wrote, “As petitioners’ counsel argued, the choice between submitting to a search procedure that is religiously and culturally abhorrent or forgoing counsel effectively presents no choice for devout Muslims like petitioners.”

Get JD Journal in Your Mail

Subscribe to our FREE daily news alerts and get the latest updates on the most happening events in the legal, business, and celebrity world. You also get your daily dose of humor and entertainment!!




Lamberth also cited President Obama’s speech in May, who quoted Judge William Young made during sentencing of a criminal, “The way we treat you … is the measure of our own liberties.” The court observed: “Judge Young’s comment is equally apt when applied to the detainees in Guantanamo,” as it was apt in the sentencing of shoe-bomber Richard Reid.





 

RELEVANT JOBS

Associate Attorney

USA-PA-Exton

ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY McKenna Snyder LLC, a law firm in Exton, PA has an immediate opening for an ex...

Apply now

Attorney

USA-MI-Sturgis

Qualifications: HaasCaywood is seeking associate attorneys for our Coldwater and Sturgis, Michiga...

Apply now

Attorney

USA-MI-Coldwater

Qualifications: HaasCaywood is seeking associate attorneys for our Coldwater and Sturgis, Michiga...

Apply now

Insurance Defense Trial Attorney/ Senior Counsel

USA-CA-San Francisco

Job description Trial Attorney - Personal Injury Defense Full Job Description Hickey Smith ...

Apply now

BCG FEATURED JOB

Locations:

Keyword:



Search Now

Education Law Attorney

USA-CA-El Segundo

El Segundo office of a BCG Attorney Search Top Ranked Law Firm seeks an education law attorney with ...

Apply Now

Education Law Attorney

USA-CA-Carlsbad

Carlsbad office of a BCG Attorney Search Top Ranked Law Firm seeks an education law attorney with 4-...

Apply Now

Education Law and Public Entity Attorney

USA-CA-El Segundo

El Segundo office of a BCG Attorney Search Top Ranked Law Firm seeks an education law and public ent...

Apply Now

Most Popular

SEARCH IN ARCHIVE

To Top