Litigation Partner and Co-Chair of the firm’s appellate and major motions team David Rivkin discussed the ongoing issue of military detention on PBS NewsHour ("What's Next for Gitmo, Detainees and U.S. Handling of Terror Suspects?"), which aired January 11.
When asked about his perspective on new legislation regarding the indefinite detention of terror suspects, Rivkin explained that he did not see the legislation as anything new, saying it does not in any way alter the parameters of preexisting law.
In the interview, Rivkin expressed his belief that the real significance of this legislation is it provided political imprimada. For the first time, he continued, Congress has explicitly put its stamp of approval on what heretofore has been done based upon indirect Congressional support, executive practices and judicial decisions and concludes that critics have been asking for two political branches to speak in unison on the issue, but now they don’t like the answer.
He went on to say that this debate is really a surrogate for the broader debate about the applicability of the laws of war paradigm to the ongoing conflict with al-Qaeda and affiliated entities.