Court rules detainees in Afghanistan can challenge imprisonment

The 5-4 decision held that the 2006 Military Commissions Act setting up military commissions to try the detainees represented an unconstitutional usurpation of power in categorically denying them habeas corpus rights. It found the legislation in violation of the so-called Suspension Clause in the US Constitution, which states: "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."

Bates, a conservative judge appointed by George W. Bush, stressed that his ruling was "quite narrow" and applied only to the four detainees. Nonetheless, he stressed, as did the Supreme Court majority in Boumediene, the fundamental character of the right of habeas corpus.

The judge quoted Alexander Hamilton's observation that habeas corpus constituted an essential bulwark against tyranny: "[C]onfinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government."

The government—under both Bush and Obama—essentially argued that, because the individuals detained at Bagram were not US citizens and were not abducted on US soil, the writ of habeas corpus had no bearing, and they had no right to challenge their imprisonment in a US court. Moreover, they insisted that because the detainees were being held outside of the United States, the courts had no jurisdiction.

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