The New Yorker is reporting that that Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the alleged Al Qaeda "sleeper agent," has been indicted in federal court. As I blogged back in December, when the Supreme Court granted cert in al-Marri's case, bringing criminal charges made sense from a lot of different perspectives:

They should charge Al Marri in federal court and try to get a conviction with a long sentence to avoid [the constitutional issues involved in his detention] for as long as possible. Such a choice would reinforce to the Justices that there's a new Executive Sheriff in town; it would look good to the world; it would make civil libertarians happy; it would keep Al Marri off the streets; and it would avoid litigation a battleground that the new administration didn't choose and presumably would rather have avoided in the first place. Perhaps these issues will come up again down the road, but maybe they won't: No need to fight a battle like that now.

  Now the interesting question is whether the Supreme Court will end up dismissing the case or rather will vacate the lower court decision and remand; the former would leave the Fourth Circuit decision on the books and the latter would not. (h/t: NabokovProdigy)