Opinion ID: 3012894
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Historical Practice

Text: In support of its argument that Congress must affirmatively grant habeas jurisdiction, the Government notes that there is no history of district courts reviewing CAT claims in the form of habeas corpus petitions. We are unpersuaded that this is relevant. In the words of the Second Circuit (which also dismissed this argument), “it makes no difference whether the type of claim allegedly being excluded from § 2241 is long-standing or newly created.” Wang, 320 F.3d at 141 n.16. Once Congress created rights under CAT by enacting FARRA, § 2241 “became a proper avenue of relief for individuals in custody in violation of FARRA and its implementing regulations.” Id. In a similar vein, the Government contends that the lack of history of habeas review of CAT claims distinguishes this case from St. Cyr because there was a longstanding history of habeas review of deportation and exclusion orders prior 23. The Government argues that because FARRA provides “an affirmative, but limited grant of jurisdiction,” it must also affirmatively grant habeas jurisdiction. Resp. Br. at 24. For this argument to be correct, FARRA must be different from other statutes with a limited grant of jurisdiction. For instance, every federal criminal law provides an affirmative, though limited, grant of jurisdiction (because the federal Government has no general police power) and yet nearly all federal criminal laws do not explicitly provide for habeas jurisdiction. If the Government’s theory of habeas jurisdiction is correct, every time Congress enacted a criminal law, a district court would lack jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus claims based on violations of that law unless that criminal statute affirmatively granted habeas jurisdiction. Cf. Reply Br. at 13 (“The Government’s position would . . . require Congress to go through the pointless exercise of attaching (redundant) jurisdiction grants to each and every point of legislation implementing a treaty’s provisions.”). 22 to IIRIRA, whereas there is no such history of CAT claims prior to FARRA. But the St. Cyr Court’s analysis of the historical availability of the writ of habeas corpus did not focus narrowly, as the Government would have us do, on whether there was a history of habeas review of the exact claims at issue in that case. Using the broad lens of the St. Cyr Court, we conclude that the question is whether the general nature of the claims at issue were historically reviewable on a writ of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus writs were traditionally issued “to command the discharge of seamen who had a statutory exemption from impressment into the British Navy, to emancipate slaves, and to obtain the freedom of apprentices and asylum inmates.” St. Cyr, 533 U.S. at 302. Here, as in St. Cyr, the general nature of the claim is that of a challenge to the validity of executive detentions, and we are persuaded by St. Cyr’s analysis demonstrating that these challenges invoke the writ’s protections in their purest form. Id. at 301 (“At its historical core, the writ of habeas corpus has served as a means of reviewing the legality of Executive detention”); id. at 303-04 (noting “the historical use of habeas corpus to remedy unlawful Executive action” and “to redress the improper exercise of official discretion”); id. at 305 (arguing that “to conclude that the writ is no longer available in this context would represent a departure from historical practice in immigration law. The writ of habeas corpus has always been available to review the legality of Executive detention.”). Even if we were to narrow the lens, disallowing habeas relief would still be a departure from historical practice. Not only did the writ traditionally issue as a means to review the legality of Executive detention of citizens, it also issued as a means of reviewing the legality of Executive detention of aliens. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. at 305-06. And it traditionally issued as a means of reviewing the legality of the detention of aliens in the face of alleged treaty violations. Brief Amici Curiae of Legal Historians Listed Herein in Support of Respondents: INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289 (2001), 16 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 465, 482 (2001) (describing cases in which deserting alien sailors brought habeas corpus petitions 23 based on violations of treaties or federal laws); see also Mali, 120 U.S. at 1 (considering habeas corpus petition brought on behalf of alien sailor alleging violations of consular agreement between the United States and Belgium). Hence the conclusion that habeas review was not available for CAT claims would, as in St. Cyr, represent “a departure from historical practice,” a departure we decline to follow. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. at 305. We therefore hold that district courts may exercise habeas jurisdiction over petitions alleging violations of CAT or FARRA and that FARRA does not speak with sufficient clarity to deprive the district courts of that jurisdiction.24 24. We hold that a district court has jurisdiction to consider habeas corpus petitions that allege violations of CAT. If CAT is a non-selfexecuting treaty (and individuals do not have a right to bring habeas claims based on violations of non-self-executing treaties, as discussed supra note 22), then, strictly speaking, the District Court may have jurisdiction only to consider claims alleging FARRA violations. The Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law, § 111 cmt h (1987), suggests that “it is the implementing legislation, rather than the agreement itself, that is given effect as law in the United States. That is true even when a non-self-executing agreement is ‘enacted’ by, or incorporated in, implementing legislation.” Assuming that CAT is nonself-executing, then so-called CAT claims may be, in fact, FARRA claims. But because the language of FARRA is virtually identical to the language of Article 3 of CAT, the distinction is one without a difference. It would be absurdly formalistic to conclude that there is no habeas jurisdiction if a petitioner invokes Article 3 of CAT, but that there is habeas jurisdiction if a petitioner invokes § 2242(a) of FARRA, when the language of the two provisions are substantively the same. Compare Article 3, CAT (“No State Party shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”) with FARRA § 2242(a) (“It shall be the policy of the United States not to expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”). The “bottom line” — if CAT is indeed non-self-executing, then FARRA implements CAT and provides a cause of action for violations of CAT, but it does not make CAT self-executing. The technical result — an individual has a claim under FARRA for a violation of CAT, but not under CAT itself. But because the distinction between FARRA and Article 3 of CAT is inconsequential, the continued colloquial reference to CAT rather than FARRA is likewise inconsequential and thus we relegate this discussion to a footnote. 24