Joyce Hens Green : biography

Green ruled against the Federal Election Commission in Federal Election Commission v. The Christian Coalition Civil Action No. 96-1781 Opinion & Order; and Judgment, filed August 2, 1999. The FEC had challenged the propriety of the Christian Coalition’s distribution of voter guides, on the grounds it had been too closely tied to large corporate donors.

But, Green’s 108-page judgment had supported the FEC in two instances; when the Christian Coalition had broken FEC guidelines in their explicit advocacy of the re-election of Newt Gingrich; and when the Christian Coalition had handed over their membership list to Senate candidate Oliver North.

In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases

Following the US Supreme Court ruling in Rasul v. Bush (2004), which determined that detainees had the right of habeas corpus and due process to challenge their detention before an impartial tribunal, many habeas corpus cases were filed on behalf of detainees at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. On September 15, 2004, Judge Green was appointed the coordinating judge for all Guantanamo Bay habeas corpus cases.

On January 31, 2005, Judge Green ruled that:

(1) detainees had the fundamental Fifth Amendment right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law; (2) complaints stated a claim for violation of due process based on Combatant Status Review Tribunal’s ("CSRT") extensive reliance on classified information in its resolution of “enemy combatant” status of detainees, the detainees’ inability to review that information, and the prohibition of assistance by counsel jointly deprived detainees of sufficient notice of the factual bases for their detention and denied them a fair opportunity to challenge their incarceration; (3) due process required that CSRTs sufficiently consider whether the evidence upon which the tribunal relied in making its “enemy combatant” determinations had been obtained through torture; (4) complaints stated a claim for violation of due process based on the government’s employment of an overly broad definition of “enemy combatant” subject to indefinite detention; and (5) Geneva Conventions applied to the Taliban detainees, but not to members of the al Qaeda terrorist organization.In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases, 355 F.Supp.2d 443 (D.D.C. 2005).