Boumediene V. Bush - Background

Background

Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States launched a "Global War on Terror". In November 2001, President Bush asserted authority to try captives from the War before "military commissions" instead of through the civilian court system. Many captives from the war were held at Camp X-Ray, which was opened at the United States' Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba in January 2002. While the United States has an indefinite lease on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba still maintained de jure sovereignty over the area. Because of the mixed jurisdiction, the Bush administration stated that the captives are not subject to American law and have no right to protection under the United States Constitution nor the American justice system.

Beginning in 2002, family and friends of approximately 200 captives initiated habeas corpus submissions to challenge the detentions. These submissions eventually worked their way through the courts, and on June 28, 2004, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Rasul v. Bush (2004). In a 6-3 decision, the Court dismissed the administration's argument that the Naval Base is outside civilian courts' jurisdiction and ruled that the captives must be given an opportunity to hear and attempt to refute whatever evidence had caused them to have been classified as "enemy combatants". As a result the Department of Defense created the Combatant Status Review Tribunals.

At the end of 2005, the United States Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act, which explicitly states that all captives held by the United States are protected against torture. The Act restricted the submission of further habeas corpus submissions, though it did not affect already filed habeas corpus submissions.

Seven months later, the Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) that only Congress and not the Executive Branch has the Constitutional authority to set up military commissions to try captives taken in the "war on terror". Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 in October, creating Military Commissions similar to those set up by the Executive Branch and retaining most of the features that had concerned critics. For example, the Commissions were empowered to hear and consider "hearsay evidence", suspects were restricted from attempting to refute or learn about evidence against them that was classified, and submission of evidence extracted from persons using "enhanced interrogation techniques" prior to the passage of the Detainee Treatment Act was allowed. The Act attempted to mandate that all outstanding habeas corpus submissions on behalf of the captives should be quashed.

In February 2007, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit considered Lakhdar Boumediene's habeas corpus submission, and in a split decision, upheld the Congress's authority to quash the outstanding habeas corpus submissions. In April 2007, the Court declined to review the Circuit Court's decision. It would reverse this decision within a few months; on June 29, 2007, it granted a writ of certiorari to Boumediene and his co-defendants.

Over the following six months, in addition to the briefs submitted by the United States government and the petitioner, over 20 amicus briefs were filed on behalf of Boumediene and his co-defendants by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Bar Association, and numerous other persons and organizations.

Oral arguments were held on December 5, 2007, and the Supreme Court announced its decision on June 12, 2008.