Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Robert C. Kirsch, 2013.Biographical NotePartner, WilmerHale.
Scope and ContentsBorn: Methuen, Massachusetts. Education: BS, Middlebury College, 1979; JD, Cornell University Law School, 1983. Career: lawyer, Hale & Dorr; lawyer, McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton; partner, WilmerHale; member, American College of Environmental Lawers, Environmental Law Institute. Reminisces: conservative social and political views of parents; assassination of John F. Kennedy; work as a weather observer on Mount Washington; early interest in environmental law; experiences at Middlebury College and Cornell Law School; early cases at Hale & Dorr; travel to New Zealand; personal experience on 9/11; first learning about Guantánamo Bay; personal and professional effects of Guantánamo cases. Discussions: Combatant Status Review Tribunals [CSRTs]; obtaining Guantánamo security clearances; early work on and courtroom proceedings of Boumediene v. Bush; first trip to Guantánamo bay; first meetings with detainees and challenges of translation; Initial Reaction Force's [IRF] abuse of Mustafa ait-Idir; censoring of detainee mail; diplomatic meetings with European, Algerian and Bosnian governments regarding detainee resettlement; release of Boumediene to France; unconstitutionality of Detainee Treatment Act [DTA]; difficulties resettling Sabir M. Lahmar in France; ongoing case of Belkacem Bensayeh; resettlement and detainees' social, emotional difficulties; arrest and U.S. military seizure of “Algerian Six”; significance of Justice Anthony Kennedy in detainees' habeas cases; National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA]; current conditions at Guantánamo; Obama administration's mishandling of Guantánamo. Cases discussed: Rasul v. Bush; Boumediene v. Bush; Hamdi v. Rumsfeld; Hamdan v. Rumsfeld; Al-Odah v. United States.
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2013.
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