[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] on Friday reversed [opinion, PDF] a lower court ruling that had dismissed a discrimination lawsuit filed by more than 200 African-American members of the Capitol Police [official website] in 2001. The issue involved whether the officers had adequately pursued mediation through the Office of Compliance [official website] before taking legal action, as required by the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 (CAA) [text]. The CAA extended Title VII [text] discrimination protections to employees of the legislative branch, but mandated a three-step process of counseling and mediation before a legal complaint can be filed. Circuit Judge Judith Rogers, writing for the three-judge panel, said:

We hold the three-step process is jurisdictional and thus affirm the district court ruling that equitable doctrines, such as vicarious exhaustion, do not apply to excuse compliance with it. We reverse, however, the district court's in-person ruling, holding that neither the CAA nor the procedural rules of the Office of Compliance require in-person attendance by the employee at counseling or mediation. Finally, we hold that receipt of written notice of the end of mediation from the Office of Compliance triggered the CAA's 30 to 90-day period for electing whether to pursue judicial or administrative relief and demonstrated the employee’s completion of counseling and mediation. Accordingly, we remand the cases to the district court.

[JURIST] The Obama administration is considering creating a maximum security prison that would hold both military and civilian detainees as well as a courtroom to accommodate remaining Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees, according to senior administration officials cited [AP report] by the Associated Press Sunday. The proposed facility would be operated jointly by the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense [official websites]. An already existing site in Michigan or in Kansas would likely be selected towards that end. Some of the detainees would be held there indefinitely either because they allegedly pose too great a risk to be freed or because no other country has been willing to take them.

The Obama administration faces sharp opposition from members of Congress in plans to transfer Guantanamo detainees to US soil. In late July, US Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Charles Johnson and Assistant Attorney General for National Security David Kris [official profile], both members of task force appointed by Obama to oversee the closing of Guantanamo, testified [JURIST news report] in front of the House Armed Services Committee [official website] that the Obama administration is considering transferring more Guantanamo Bay detainees to the US as they urged Congress to pass proposed reforms to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [text, PDF; JURIST news archive] and detainee policy. In May, the US House of Representatives passed a spending bill [HR 2847 materials] that denied [JURIST report] the Obama administration's request for $60 million to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center and placed limits on the government's ability to transfer detainees to the US and release detainees to foreign countries. Also in May, the Senate passed an amendment [JURIST report] to a piece of legislation that eliminates $80 million intended to be used for the closure of Guantanamo until the president provides a "comprehensive, responsible plan" detailing how it will be done.

[JURIST] Iran began the trial of 100 detained protesters from the post-election turmoil [JURIST news archive] Saturday as former Iranian president Mohammad Ali Khatami [RealiteEU profile] decried [statement, in Persian] the proceedings as a "show trial." Khatami said that the proceedings are against the Iranian constitution and laws and challenged the validity of confessions obtained under stressed circumstances. Khatami also criticized the court for giving no advance notice to the accused of their charges and warned that this display would undermine public confidence in the Iranian government. Former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mosavi [IranTracker profile; JURIST news archive] denounced the proceedings in a statement [text, in Persian] on his website as a clumsy display in preparation for Ahmadinejad's new term that uses confessions coerced through medieval methods through which the government expects to prove that there was no fraud in the elections.

The protesters on trial have been charged with crimes [PressTV report] ranging from vandalism and organizing riots to sending pictures of the protests to "enemy media." Iranian officials announced earlier this week [JURIST report] the plan to either press charges against or release most of those held after the riots. The government released 140 of those detained and closed one prison holding protesters, after Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] and other groups alleged that some protesters were beaten, deprived of sleep, and threatened with torture in an effort to force false confessions [report text; JURIST report]. Earlier in July, opposition leaders called for the release [JURIST report] of those detained for their alleged involvement in the protests. Also in July, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) [advocacy website] reported that the number of deaths that occurred at the protests exceeded government reports [press release; JURIST report].