Established the practice and limits of indefinite military detention at Guantánamo Bay.

After 9/11, the US began an unprecedented practice of holding so-called “enemy combatants” in military detention without charge and without according them the status or rights of prisoners of war. The Supreme Court essentially upheld this practice in 2004. But in the Hamdi and Rasul decisions of 2004 and again in 2008 with Boumediene v. Bush, the Court ruled that Guantánamo detainees were entitled to bring habeas corpus petitions in US courts to challenge whether they were properly found to be “enemy combatants.”

Although President Obama pledged to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Congress has enacted laws prohibiting the transfer of detainees to the US and imposing obstacles (that are in some cases insurmountable) to transferring detainees to other countries. Moreover, regardless of whether the prison is closed, the Obama administration has determined that it will continue to hold several of the men currently at Guantánamo without trial because the evidence against them is either insufficient or tainted by torture.