Melissa Hoffer

Melissa Hoffer is a lawyer specializing in environmental law.[1][2][3]

Official portrait, 2023

Early life and education

Hoffer holds a B.A. from Hampshire College and graduated from Northeastern University's School of Law in 1998.[4]

Law career

Hoffer was with the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Boston from 1999 to 2007, where she was promoted to junior partner in 2003.

Since July 2004, she and a team from her firm worked with the Center for Constitutional Rights to represent the Algerian Six at Guantanamo Bay detention center in a habeas corpus suit against the United States government. They were six Bosnian men who were native-born Algerians, and who had been kidnapped by US officials after a Bosnian court released them. They had been detained since January 2002 at Guantanamo Bay detainment camp without the US charging them with any crime.

As the federal case was pending, in 2007 Hoffer traveled with a team to Guantanamo to interview the men and offer further services.[5]

On January 7, 2007, the Boston Globe published an article by Hoffer about her Guantanamo clients.[6] Hoffer represents the "Algerian Six".

In a 2007 profile for Northeastern Law magazine, Hoffer compared her clients' cases with the landmark civil rights cases of Brown v. Board of Education, key to African Americans getting equal access to education opportunities, and Korematsu v. United States, a key case fought for the rights of Americans of Japanese descent, interned during World War 2.[4]

Hoffer said:

We are supposed to be a country under the rule of law, You can't detain someone indefinitely without charge. But that's exactly what the government is doing here.

In October 2008, in Boumediene v. Bush, the US Supreme Court ruled that habeas and other protections of the US Constitution applied to detainees at Guantanamo, and other foreign nationals. The judge ruled that five of the Algerian Six were being held illegally and ordered their release.

Three have returned to their families in Bosnia, but the other two men are essentially stateless. Bosnia does not want them and they fear for their safety if they return to Algeria. The sixth is still in custody, although a federal appeals panel has ordered his release. The Obama administration has not responded to the court.

References
  1. "GM and Chrysler lose third straight lawsuit against state emissions guidelines" (PDF). New Hampshire Advocacy Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-01-05.
  2. "Melissa Hoffer Joins CLF As New Hampshire Advocacy Center Director: Seasoned Environmental Lawyer Brings Private Sector Experience to Non-Profit Post". Conservation Law Foundation. 2007-02-01. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
  3. Melissa Hoffer (2008-06-23). "Melissa Hoffer: Mass transit should link New Hampshire's cities". New Hampshire Union Leader. Archived from the original on 2009-12-30.
  4. Jeri Zeder (Winter 2007). "Here, There and Everywhere: From human rights to cross-border commerce, seven graduates find a niche in international law". Northeastern Alumni. Northeastern University. Archived from the original on 2010-02-03.
  5. Torture in Guantánamo Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, cageprisoners, April 20, 2006
  6. Melissa Hoffer (2007-01-07). "Trapped at Guantanamo". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2009-03-03.


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