Congress and then-President Bill Clinton created the court as part of the Anti-Terrorism Act after the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings.

One of the act’s longstanding benefits was to require chemical markers in some explosive materials, making it easier for police to track bombs. The act also allowed officials to deport terrorists from American soil without being compelled by the terrorists to divulge classified information leading to their identification, an act which formed the basis for the Alien Terrorist Removal Court.

“The statute authorizes the attorney general to draft an application for removal of a suspected alien terrorist and to submit the application to the Alien Terrorist Removal Court under seal,” according to David Sellers, the public affairs officer for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The ATRC shares judges and a basic purpose with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, but the similarities end there. Unlike the FISA court, the ATRC exists without a website or even a physical meeting place. As Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. recently observed, the court exists only on paper.

The senator also remarked through a spokesperson that since “the court has never been used by prosecutors, likely because of the constitutional questions that would be raised, it is reasonable to argue that Congress should repeal it.”

U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said the government should use the court, but if it doesn’t, it should be abolished.

The Constitutional issues of the court, particularly a defendant’s access to secret evidence per the Sixth Amendment, have prevented it from taking any cases, according to legal experts. The court was hampered from its inception by the writing of these secret-evidence provisions, and there are further doubts as to the practical wisdom of deporting hostile agents from the U.S. who could plan other attacks from foreign soil.

Despite the issues, the court was created to solve real problems, but it has never been given the tools to do so.

Other courts in U.S. history have been abolished due to their archaism. Others have been abolished because they were rendered effectively useless at the time of their creation.

Both of these are now true of the ATRC. It’s a politically expedient, short-term solution to terrorism and illegal immigration that has marched past the tragedies that led to its creation, as well as 9/11 and other attacks, without taking action.

The Mixed-Slave Trade Court saw its last case in 1870. The U.S. Courts for the Indian Territory was abolished in 1907. And the Special Railroad Court, which also never saw a case, came to the end of the line in 1997. It’s time for the ARTC to go the way of these other obsolete judicial institutions.