The Alien Terrorist Removal Court’s First Case

Steve Vladeck for Just Security writes about the first case filed in the Alien Terrorist Removal Court (“ATRC”), a specialized national security court that Congress created in 1996:

"Last week, it was activated for the first time in its 30 years of existence. Congress’ idea in creating the ATRC was to provide a judicial mechanism for removal proceedings that functions like the one provided by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), in which the government could simultaneously (1) obtain meaningful judicial review in a deportation case; while (2) keeping the (classified) evidence secret."

Last week, Seamus Hughes

"broke the news that the Trump administration had filed the first-ever application before the ATRC, leading to the first order in that court’s 30-year history (and its hasty creation of a website). We don’t know much beyond what Seamus has already reported (and what’s now on the ATRC’s website). We don’t know the identity of the person subject to the proceedings, why the government believes this person is an `alien terrorist,' what evidence the government is relying on to make that case to the ATRC, or why it chose that route instead of the normal immigration removal process (other than, presumably, to keep the evidence secret). But as someone who has spent more time thinking about the ATRC than, I suspect, 99.99% of the population, now seems as good a time as any to introduce the court; to flag the constitutional questions its statutory structure raises; and to reflect on how alarming it is that the Trump administration has, after all this time, activated it."

Politico has an article on the case.