Lawyers for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention center argued Wednesday in court that a new policy requiring genital searches of their clients before meetings and phone calls was degrading and part of an attempt to discourage communication with counsel.
U.S. District Chief Judge Royce Lamberth heard argument Wednesday on emergency motions filed by the detainees’ lawyers to block the new search policy, which also applied to detainees’ phone calls with family. Covington & Burling senior counsel S. William Livingston called the policy a situation "where something that isn’t broken is being fixed." Much of the 90-minute hearing was sealed.
