Justice Comes to Guantanamo: Boumediene v. Bush

On June 12, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S.___ , 2008 WL 2369628 (2008). The petitioners in Boumediene, non-citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay as enemy combatants in the ongoing War on Terror, filed for habeas relief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2004, after the decisions of the Supreme Court in Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004), Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 (2004), and Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426 (2004). Among other claims, they sought to have the District Court rule that they had enforceable rights under the Geneva Conventions and the Fifth Amendment Due Process clause, and that the Combatant Status Review Tribunal process (CSRT) implemented in July of 2004 violated those rights...[more]