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Feeling the strain of that 1-year time limit imposed ? showily imposed ? on Guantanamo.

Difficult issues, now with time pressure:

Lawyers inside and outside the department say [the (likely) new Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.] will face crushing time constraints. Chief among them is a pledge by President Obama to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year. Mr. Holder and a department task force must find a solution to the question of what to do with the remaining prisoners there and any apprehended in the future.

?This will be a sea change of what went on before,? said an Obama administration lawyer, noting that the principal authority over detention policies will move from the Defense Department under the Bush administration to the Justice Department....

?The idea that it has to be closed within a year will drive the timing of many things,? said the Obama administration lawyer....

Meanwhile, a lot of people are expecting a return to the Justice Department's "historic role of largely enforcing prohibitions against racial and ethnic discrimination."

Anyway, everyone knows the easiest way to deal with a deadline: Get an extension.

Full post as published by Althouse on February 02, 2009 (boomark / email).