The United States Supreme Court has declined to review the decision by former Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to revoke plea agreements involving three men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Supreme Court’s decision on Monday leaves intact a ruling by a federal appeals court that upheld Austin’s authority to cancel the agreements, which had removed the death penalty as a possible punishment for the defendants.
The three accused are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mustafa al Hawsawi and Walid Bin ‘Attash.
They had separately challenged the appeals court’s decision, arguing that it wrongly sided with the US government.
The ruling returns the cases to military courts, where proceedings have faced years of delays as authorities grapple with legal and evidentiary issues surrounding the alleged conspirators.
Steve Vladeck, a CNN legal analyst and professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said the Supreme Court’s decision would allow the pretrial process to continue.
“The practical effect of today’s denials of certiorari is to clear the way for the inexorable pre-trial proceedings in these cases to continue,” Vladeck said.
However, he expressed doubts about the timeline for the trials, noting that several unresolved issues could prevent proceedings from starting as scheduled.
“It would be one thing if a trial were reasonably likely in the near future, but even the current summer 2028 trial date is entirely unrealistic given how many issues remain to be resolved.”
The cases have been delayed for years, partly because of disputes over the treatment of detainees in Central Intelligence Agency prisons and whether evidence obtained through torture can be admitted in court.
The plea agreements were announced in 2024 following more than two years of negotiations.
Under the deals, the defendants would have pleaded guilty to all charges and participated in public sentencing hearings, where relatives of victims and survivors of the attacks could question them.
However, Austin revoked the agreements, maintaining that a decision of such significance should remain under his authority. He had previously argued that the matter “should rest with me.”
A military judge ruled in November 2024 that the agreements were “valid and enforceable.”
A military appeals court subsequently ruled against Austin, before a federal appeals court later upheld his authority to withdraw the deals.
The agreements had sparked opposition from some organisations representing victims of the September 11 attacks and their families.
The Trump administration has continued to defend Austin’s decision to revoke the agreements.
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh recused himself from consideration of the appeals.
