After the U.S. Supreme Court held that U.S. courts have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241
to hear legal challenges on behalf of persons detained at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, in connection with the war against terrorism (Rasul v. Bush), the Pentagon established
administrative hearings, called “Combatant Status Review Tribunals” (CSRTs), to allow the
detainees to contest their status as enemy combatants, and informed them of their right to pursue
relief in federal court by seeking a writ of habeas corpus. Lawyers subsequently filed dozens of
petitions on behalf of the detainees in the District Court for the District of Columbia, where
district court judges reached inconsistent conclusions as to whether the detainees have any
enforceable rights to challenge their treatment and detention. habeas corpus among enemy combatants

Congress subsequently passed the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) to divest the courts of
jurisdiction to hear some detainees’ challenges by eliminating the federal courts’ statutory
jurisdiction over habeas claims (as well as other causes of action) by aliens detained at
Guantanamo. The DTA provided for limited appeals of CSRT determinations or final decisions of
military commissions. After the Supreme Court rejected the view that the DTA left it without
jurisdiction to review a habeas challenge to the validity of military commissions in the case of
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the 109th Congress enacted the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA)
(P.L. 109-366) to authorize the President to convene military commissions and to amend the DTA
to further reduce detainees’ access to federal courts, including in cases already pending. habeas corpus among enemy combatants

In June 2008, the Supreme Court held in the case of Boumediene v. Bush that aliens designated as
enemy combatants and detained at Guantanamo Bay have the constitutional privilege of habeas
corpus. The Court also found that MCA § 7, which limited judicial review of executive
determinations of the petitioners’ enemy combatant status to that available under the DTA, did not
provide an adequate habeas substitute and therefore acted as an unconstitutional suspension of
the writ of habeas. The immediate impact of the Boumediene decision is that detainees at
Guantanamo may petition a federal district court for habeas review of the legality and possibly
the circumstances of their detention, perhaps including challenges to the jurisdiction of military
commissions. President Barack Obama’s Executive Order calling for a temporary halt in military
commission proceedings and the closure of the Guantanamo detention facility is likely to have
implications for legal challenges raised by detainees. Later this year, the Supreme Court is
expected to consider arguments in the case of Kiyemba v. Obama as to whether federal habeas
courts have the authority to order the release into the United States of Guantanamo detainees
found to be unlawfully held. habeas corpus among enemy combatants

Chicago style