In an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered, Strauss Center Director and UT Law Professor Robert Chesney discusses the Obama Administration’s recently announced plans to transfer a detainee captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan to the U.S. to face civilian criminal trial. This case marks the first time a detainee held in military custody in Afghanistan will be brought to the U.S. criminal justice system.

Chesney explains that the detainee, Irek Hamidullan, is a Russian national held in U.S. military custody and part of a dwindling population of non-Afghan detainees held under the colors of the law of war, meaning they can be held for the duration of hostilities without prosecution. Chesney points out that as U.S. operations in Afghanistan draw to a close, the clock is ticking to find a solution for these detainees. By bringing Hamidullan to the U.S., Chesney says the Administration may be floating a trial balloon to determine if this is a viable solution for other detainees, including those held at Guantanamo.

Chesney concludes this would be “wishful thinking” on the Administration’s part, given the backlash over previous attempts to try Guantanamo detainees in U.S. courts. Chesney also notes that should the trial go poorly it will complicate future attempts to bring detainees into the U.S. and further diminish the Administration’s prospects of reaching its long held goal of closing Guantanamo.

Chesney also discussed the U.S. criminal justice system in the context of fair trials for whistleblowers in a recent piece by Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post. In Zakaria’s opinion editorial, Why Edward Snowden should agree to stand trial in the U.S., Chesney discusses what a potential Snowden trial might look like and whether or not it would be fair. Chesney argues that while each whistleblower trial is unique, it is possible for Snowden to get a fair trial— however, there would be tension between “Snowden’s desire to ‘put the NSA on trial’ and the court’s efforts to keep the scope of the trial more limited.”