Opinion
Civil Action 05-2380 (CKK)
09-01-2022
ZAKARIA AL-BAIDANY, Petitioner v. JOSEPH R. BIDEN, in his official capacity as President of the United States, et al. Respondents.
ORDER
COLLEEN KOLLAR-KOTELLY United States District Judge
The Court has received and reviewed the parties' [317] Joint Status Report. Respondents request the Court set a briefing schedule for a motion to withhold and redact certain relevant information from counsel for Petitioner, pursuant to Section I.F of the [98] Case Management Order (Nov. 6, 2008). For his part, Petitioner requests the Court set a briefing schedule for a motion to admit or exclude hearsay testimony in the advance of a merits determination, pursuant to Section II. C of the [98] Case Management Order.
As to the withholding issue, Respondents shall file their Section I.F motion on or before November 7, 2022. Petitioner shall file his response on or before November 21, 2022, and Respondents may file a reply on or before November 28, 2022.
As to hearsay, Respondents correctly note that, after the entry of the [98] Case Management Order, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit clarified that hearsay evidence is “always admissible” in habeas proceedings. Al-Bihani v. Obama, 590 F.3d 86, 879 (D.C. Cir. 2010). Nevertheless, al-Bihani clearly envisions litigation over the probative weight of hearsay evidence in advance of a merits hearing. See id. at 890. As such, the Court agrees with Petitioner that resolution of hearsay issues in advance of a merits hearing would assist the Court in its ultimate merits determination. Separate pre-hearing briefing, however, would be unnecessarily cumulative. Therefore, the Court expects the parties to address the issue in subsequent merits briefing, which the Court shall schedule at a later date.
Finally, the parties shall submit a joint status report on or before September 30,2022 updating the Court as to the progress of Petitioner's expert's application for a security clearance.
SO ORDERED.