28 March 2006
U.S. Supreme Court Hears Detainee Case
Appeal addresses constitutionality of military tribunals
By Alexandra Abboud
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington – The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on March 28 in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, who has been detained by the U.S. government.
At the heart of the case is the question of the scope of presidential power during wartime. After the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, President Bush established military tribunals, administered by the U.S. Department of Defense, to try certain individuals who were not U.S. citizens for violations of the law of war. (See related article.)
The Hamdan case comes to the Supreme Court after the U.S Court of Appeals for the District Columbia Circuit federal appeals court in November 2005 overturned a lower court ruling that said that the military commissions violate U.S. and international law.
Hamdan’s lawyers argue that the Bush administration lacks the constitutional authority to try Hamdan by military commission. Hamdan was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and has been held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since then. He is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, murder and terrorism.
The U.S. government argues that President Bush, as commander in chief, has the right during wartime to decide how to try enemy combatants who are not protected by the Geneva Conventions.
This is the first terrorism case to reach the Supreme Court since June 2004, when it ruled in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld that U.S. citizens being held as enemy combatants have the right to a hearing on their detention. On the same day, the court also ruled in the consolidated cases Rasul v. Bush and Odah v. Bush that U.S. federal courts have jurisdiction to hear cases challenging the detention of foreign nationals. (See related article.)
Since that time, two new justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, have been confirmed to the Supreme Court. Roberts, however, has recused himself from the case because he ruled in the Hamdan case as a federal appeals court judge, prior to being named chief justice.
A ruling in the case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld is expected by early summer.
For more information see The Supreme Court of the United States: Highest Court in the Land.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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