Court Opinion

ID: 9495677
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:08:15.175227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:08.976758
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I am in agreement with the majority both with respect to mootness and to the merits, but I write separately primarily to suggest the significance of the present determinations for future phases of the case.
On the issue of mootness, a detailed study of the arguments offered by GRF would lend support to the conclusion reached by the majority. GRF did seek at various points to litigate the question of enjoining the government from blocking GRF’s assets through a designation of GRF as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
On the merits, the concept of “interest” as it relates to property useful to aliens for terrorist purposes may in some cases be tenuous and require careful attention in application, but is nonetheless valid in light of crucial national security concerns. GRF’s constitutional objections are of varying degrees of merit, but its procedural complaints seem of greatest weight, even though not weighty enough to support preliminary relief. These procedural objections may not have been fully formulated in the context of GRF’s designation as an SDGT.
On the question of what is yet to be done, we have left factual matters entirely open, as they pertain both to permanent relief and to any preliminary relief that GRF might seek in the future. See Adams v. City of Chicago, 135 F.3d 1150, 1153 (7th Cir.1998) (noting that denial of a preliminary injunction does not doom subsequent motions for temporary relief based on facts unavailable at the time of the first motion). The issues decided at this preliminary level appear entirely legal in nature and not subject to reexamination in any subsequent attempts at preliminary relief based on future factual developments. It is conceivable, of course, that GRF might be able to challenge this conclusion.