United States Court of Military Commission Review

[28] On February 9, 2009, three judges from the Court, Frank J. Williams, Dan O'Toole, and D. Francis were empaneled to consider whether they should comply with the President's Executive Order halting all their proceedings.

Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that Ali Al Bahlul's military defense attorneys filed a fifty-page appeal of his sentence on free speech grounds on September 2, 2009.

As offensive as it may be, [Bahlul's film work] is speech that falls within the core protections of the First Amendment, which forbids the prosecution of 'the thoughts, the beliefs, the ideals of the accused.Three of the Court's judges assembled on January 26, 2010, to hear oral arguments.

Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that the Obama administration had proposed a change in where appeals of the rulings and verdicts of military commissions would be heard.

[31] The proposed changes would have had them first heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which Rosenberg noted was an experienced, respected 58-year-old institution.