Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

The Supreme Court ruled today in the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that the military tribunals created by the Bush administration to try terror suspects violate both American military law and the Geneva Convention.  The 5-to-3 ruling (in which Justice Roberts did not participate), also rejected Congressional efforts to strip the court of jurisdiction over habeas corpus appeals by detainees at the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.  Four judges also concluded that the conspiracy offense “with which Hamdan was charged is ‘not an offense that by . . . the law of war may be tried by a military commission.'”

The full decision is here: Download HamdanvRumsfeld.pdf.

-jmc