Ameur v. Gates

• Decision Date: 16 July 2014
• Docket Number: No. 13–2011.,13–2011.
• Citation: 759 F.3d 317
• Parties: Mammar AMEUR, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Robert M. GATES, in his individual capacity; Donald Rumsfeld, in his individual capacity; Paul Wolfowitz, in his individual capacity; Gordon England, in his individual capacity; James M. McGarrah, in his individual capacity; Richard B. Myers, in his individual capacity; Peter Pace, in his individual capacity; Michael Glenn Mullen, “Mike”, in his individual capacity; James T. Hill, in his individual capacity; Bantz Craddock, in his individual capacity; Geoffrey D. Miller, in his individual capacity; Jay Hood, in his individual capacity; Harry B. Harris, Jr., in his individual capacity; Mark H. Buzby, in his individual capacity; Adolph McQueen, in his individual capacity; Nelson Cannon, in his individual capacity; Michael Bumgarner, in his individual capacity; Wade Dennis, in his individual capacity; Bruce Vargo, in his individual capacity; Esteban Rodriguez, in his individual capacity; Daniel McNeill, in his individual capacity; Gregory J. Ihde, in his individual capacity; John Does 1–100, in their individual capacities; United States of America, Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

759 F.3d 317

Mammar AMEUR, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.Robert M. GATES, in his individual capacity; Donald Rumsfeld, in his individual capacity; Paul Wolfowitz, in his individual capacity; Gordon England, in his individual capacity; James M. McGarrah, in his individual capacity; Richard B. Myers, in his individual capacity; Peter Pace, in his individual capacity; Michael Glenn Mullen, “Mike”, in his individual capacity; James T. Hill, in his individual capacity; Bantz Craddock, in his individual capacity; Geoffrey D. Miller, in his individual capacity; Jay Hood, in his individual capacity; Harry B. Harris, Jr., in his individual capacity; Mark H. Buzby, in his individual capacity; Adolph McQueen, in his individual capacity; Nelson Cannon, in his individual capacity; Michael Bumgarner, in his individual capacity; Wade Dennis, in his individual capacity; Bruce Vargo, in his individual capacity; Esteban Rodriguez, in his individual capacity; Daniel McNeill, in his individual capacity; Gregory J. Ihde, in his individual capacity; John Does 1–100, in their individual capacities; United States of America, Defendants–Appellees.

No. 13–2011.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: May 13, 2014.

Decided: July 16, 2014.

ARGUED:Gwynne Lynette Skinner, Willamette University College of Law, Salem, Oregon, for Appellant. Sydney Foster, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Appellees. ON BRIEF:Stuart F. Delery, Assistant Attorney General, Matthew M. Collette, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellees.

Before TRAXLER, Chief Judge, and MOTZ and AGEE, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge AGEE wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge TRAXLER and Judge MOTZ joined.

AGEE, Circuit Judge:

In 2003, United States military personnel detained suspected terrorist Mammar Ameur at a military base in Afghanistan and, later, at a facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Although Ameur was determined to be an “enemy combatant,” he was eventually released to his native country of Algeria in 2008.

After being released, Ameur brought suit in district court against former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and other federal officials allegedly involved in his detention. Ameur's complaint requested monetary damages under the Alien Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000bb–bb–4, and the United States Constitution. Applying a provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (“MCA”), 28 U.S.C. § 2241(e)(2), the district court dismissed the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

On appeal, Ameur contends that the district court erred in relying on an MCA provision that he argues the Supreme Court invalidated in Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. 723, 128 S.Ct. 2229, 171 L.Ed.2d 41 (2008). Additionally, he maintains that the relevant MCA provision was unconstitutionally applied in his case, even if Boumediene did not explicitly invalidate the MCA statute.

For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the district court's decision.

I.

A.

Ameur's complaint alleges that he was first detained in 2002 by Pakistani authorities.¹ Later, Ameur was transferred to American military custody at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. In March 2003, he was moved to detention facilities at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Ameur alleges that he suffered mistreatment and abuse during each of his various detentions and transfers. At Bagram, for instance, Ameur was purportedly beaten, attacked by dogs, subjected to harsh lights and music, interrogated, placed into stress positions, and deprived of religious materials. Similarly harsh abuse allegedly continued at Guantanamo until his release.

In 2004, during his detention at Guantanamo, a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (“CSRT”) determined that Ameur was an “enemy combatant.” ² As an “enemy combatant,” Ameur was found to have been a “part of or supporting Taliban or al Qaida forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.” Bismullah v. Gates, 514 F.3d 1291, 1297 n. 8 (D.C.Cir.2008) (quoting Department of Defense regulations). Although Ameur alleges that the CSRT's decision was unsupported, his designation as an enemy combatant remains unchanged.

In August 2005, an Administrative Review Board (“ARB”) recommended that Ameur was eligible for discretionary release,³ but did not reverse Ameur's enemy-combatant designation. Rather, the ARB determination was premised “on an assessment of various factors, including the continued threat posed by each detainee.” Janko, 741 F.3d at 138 n. 2 (quotation marks omitted). Ameur was eventually released and transferred to his native Algeria in 2008.

B.

Three years after his release, in 2011, Ameur filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. His complaint contained claims against Gates, 21 other current and former Department of Defense officials, and 100 unnamed “John Doe” federal officials in their individual capacities. The Washington district court first dismissed all of Ameur's claims—except those claims against Gates—for lack of personal jurisdiction. Then, finding that many of the decisions described in Ameur's complaint were made at the Pentagon, the district court transferred the case to the Eastern District of Virginia.

Once the case was transferred, Ameur filed an amended complaint. This amended complaint reasserted claims against all the original defendants, contending that they performed, endorsed, commanded, or supported various unlawful acts during Ameur's detention. Ameur alleged that these acts violated customary international law, the Geneva Conventions, the First and Fifth Amendments, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The complaint sought compensatory and punitive monetary damages.

Invoking the Westfall Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2679, the United States substituted itself for all defendants as to Ameur's claims under the Alien Tort Claims Act. The Government certified that the defendants were federal employees acting within the scope of their employment when they performed the acts alleged in Ameur's complaint. See28 U.S.C. § 2679(d).

The United States and the individual defendants then filed a motion to dismiss, which the district court granted. See Ameur v. Gates, 950 F.Supp.2d 905, 913 (E.D.Va.2013). The district court determined that 28 U.S.C. § 2241(e)(2) deprived it of subject matter jurisdiction, as Ameur was detained as an enemy combatant and his claims concerned his treatment in detention. Id. at 910–13; see also28 U.S.C. § 2241(e)(2) (barring non-habeas-corpus actions brought by certain detainees challenging the conditions of their detention). Furthermore, the district court held that sovereign immunity barred Ameur's international-law claims, as the United States had properly substituted itself as a defendant to those claims.⁴

Ameur timely appealed, and we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

II.

This appeal considers the effect of one portion of the MCA codified at 28 U.S.C. § 2241(e). Section 2241(e) provides:

(1) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.

(2) Except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 1005(e) of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (10 U.S.C. 801 note), no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any other action against the United States or its agents relating to any aspect of the detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of confinement of an alien who is or was detained by the United States and has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.

In Boumediene, the Supreme Court struck down § 2241(e)(1) as an unconstitutional suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. But § 2241(e)(2), which bars plaintiffs like Ameur from bringing “any other action,” does not implicate habeas corpus.

If § 2241(e)(2) applies to Ameur's claims, then courts lack subject matter jurisdiction to hear them. See, e.g., Aamer v. Obama, 742 F.3d 1023, 1028–29 (D.C.Cir.2014); Al–Nashiri, 741 F.3d at 1006–07. When a district court dismisses for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, as in the case before us, “we review the district court's factual findings with respect to jurisdiction for clear error and the legal conclusion that flows therefrom de novo.” In re KBR, Inc., Burn Pit Litig., 744 F.3d 326, 333 (4th Cir.2014) (quotation marks and alteration omitted). We must decide this jurisdictional issue before any others. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env't, 523 U.S. 83, 94, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998) (“Without jurisdiction the court cannot proceed at all in any cause.” (quotation marks omitted)).

Section 2241 (e)(2)'s plain terms bar Ameur's suit, and he does not argue to the contrary. Ameur's action is one “other” than habeas corpus, which is discussed in the preceding subsection, § 2241(e)(1). It is against “agents” of the United States, in that all the defendants were government personnel at the time of the relevant events. See Hamad v. Gates, 732 F.3d 990, 990–91, 995 (9th Cir.2013) (finding that detainee's suit against same defendants was “against the United States or its agents”). The complaint relates only to Ameur's “detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of confinement” during his “detention by the United States.” And a CSRT panel has determined that Ameur was an “enemy combatant.” See Janko, 741 F.3d at 144 (holding that a CSRT determination is a determination by the...