Dismiss as moot

By announcing criminal charges last week against Ali al-Marri, the Obama administration took an important step toward bringing the government’s terrorism-fighting efforts within the rule of law.

Mr. Marri, a legal resident of the United States, has been held at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., for more than five years, having been declared an enemy combatant by former President George W. Bush in 2003. The move puts the government’s claims against Mr. Marri where they belong: in a civilian court where the government will be required to present its evidence and he can answer.

In their conference on Friday, the Supreme Court will consider the Obama administration’s request that the court dismiss as moot Mr. Marri’s pending challenge to the government’s power to hold him without charges or trial. The justices should decline.

Let's see if i understand the sentence in RED correctly; the structure of the sentence is unnatural to me:

so...

1. Mr. al-Marri has been wanting to challenge the government's power to detain him indefinitely.
2. and Obama's administration has requested that the court to ignore Mr. al-Marri's challenge, and consider his challenge as legally irrelevant.

am i on the right track to understand this?