On June 29, 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, concluding that US President George Bush overstepped his authority in creating military war crimes tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees. ( pdf of decision ) The Court, in a 5-3 decision, held that the Bush administration did not have authority to set up the tribunals and found the military commissions illegal under both military justice law and the Geneva Convention.

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion for the court. Stevens explicitly did not decide whether the President possessed the Constitutional power to convene military commissions like the one created to try Hamdan. Even if he possessed such power, those tribunals would either have to be sanctioned by the laws of war, as codified by Congress in Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice or authorized by statute. As to the statutory authorization, he ruled that there is nothing in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) "even hinting" at expanding the President's war powers beyond those enumerated in Art. 15.
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Past Indybay Posts About Guantanamo | Coverage of 2004 Decision | Berkeley Vigil in Solidarity with March to Guantánamo | Protests over US abuses at Guantanamo Spread to Egypt, Sudan, the West Bank...

Democracy Now | Supreme Court Says Bush Went Too Far at Guantanamo | Text Of Decision | CagePrisoners.com | Amnesty International | Human Rights Watch | Shut It Down.org