Part III
Al Maqaleh Revisited: Has Anything Changed?
In Part II I explored the application of habeas outside the U.S. to foreigners in Boumediene and Al Maqaleh. The Al Maqaleh court ended up deciding habeas does not apply to the detainees in Bagram. But the circuit court’s decision in Al Maqaleh did not mark the end of the road for the Bagram detainees in court.
A new claim was made in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on April 4, <Read More>
Part II
Boumediene and Al Maqaleh: The Application of Habeas to Foreigners Outside the U.S.
With a right to habeas the foreign detainees in Afghanistan would have a chance to challenge their detention in court, and have a greater chance of avoiding indefinite detention. However habeas rights are not always guaranteed to foreigners held by the U.S. outside our borders.
The Supreme Court addressed the availability of habeas corpus (a constitutional right to challenge the legitimacy of one’s detention) outside the U.S. in <Read More>
Following the declaration of independence from the British, the American colonies were awash in heated debate regarding the form and powers their new governments would take. Writing in support of a national government, capable of assuring compliance with its laws, Alexander Hamilton stated that “[i]t is essential to the idea of a law that it be attended with a . . . penalty or punishment for disobedience.”[1] Absent penalty or punishment for disobedience, a law would amount to nothing more <Read More>
Q: When does a noncitizen, classified as an enemy combatant, held extraterritorially, have a constitutional right to habeas corpus?
A: Sometimes.
Habeas Corpus: The Great Writ
‘Habeas corpus’ is Latin for ‘that you have the body,’ or ‘you should have the body.’ A writ of habeas corpus is a court order for the production of a prisoner so a <Read More>
The Supreme Court of the United States has decided in consecutive landmark decisions, including Rasul[i] and Boumediene,[ii] to extend both the statutory and constitutional right to petition for the writ of habeas corpus to “enemy combatants” detained in Guantánamo Bay. A recent decision by the D.C. Circuit in Al Maqaleh v. Gates, however, denied habeas relief to enemy combatants detained in Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.[iii] This new decision could become the controlling bright line limitation to the scope of the <Read More>