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Rasul V. Bush
''Rasul v. Bush'', 542 U.S. 466 (2004), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that foreign nationals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could petition federal courts for writs of ''habeas corpus'' to review the legality of their detention. The Court's 6–3 judgment on June 28, 2004, reversed a D.C. Circuit decision which had held that the judiciary has no jurisdiction to hear any petitions from foreign nationals held in Guantanamo Bay. The lead petitioner, British citizen Shafiq Rasul, was one of the Tipton Three. The U.S. transported the three men to the United Kingdom in March 2004 before the decision was handed down, and the government released them the next day. Background Military order On September 14, 2001, Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, giving the President of the United States broad powers to prosecute a "War on Terror" in response to the September 11 attacks. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. courts of appeals, and it covers only the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It meets at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington, D.C., Washington, DC. The D.C. Circuit is often considered to be second only to the United States Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court in status and prestige, and it is sometimes unofficially termed "the second highest court in the land". Because its jurisdiction covers the District of Columbia, it tends to be the main federal appellate court for issues of U.S. United States administrative law, administrative law and United States constitutional law, constitutional law. Four of the nine current Supreme Court justices were previously judg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geneva Conventions
upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Convention'' colloquially denotes the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of the Second World War (1939–1945), which updated the terms of the two 1929 treaties and added two new conventions. The Geneva Conventions extensively define the basic rights of wartime prisoners, civilians and military personnel; establish protections for the wounded and sick; and provide protections for the civilians in and around a war-zone. The Geneva Conventions define the rights and protections afforded to those non-combatants who fulfill the criteria of being '' protected persons''. The treaties of 1949 were ratified, in their entirety or with reservations, by 196 countries. The Geneva Conventio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judicial Review
Judicial review is a process under which a government's executive, legislative, or administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. In a judicial review, a court may invalidate laws, acts, or governmental actions that are incompatible with a higher authority. For example, an executive decision may be invalidated for being unlawful, or a statute may be invalidated for violating the terms of a constitution. Judicial review is one of the checks and balances in the separation of powers—the power of the judiciary to supervise (judicial supervision) the legislative and executive branches when the latter exceed their authority. The doctrine varies between jurisdictions, so the procedure and scope of judicial review may differ between and within countries. The judiciary in United States has been described as having unusually strong powers of judicial review from a comparative perspective. General principles Judicial review can be understood in the context o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enemy Combatants
Enemy combatant is a term for a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict, used by the U.S. government and media during the War on Terror. Usually enemy combatants are members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. In the case of a civil war or an insurrection "state" may be replaced by the more general term "party to the conflict" (as described in the 1949 Geneva Conventions Article 3). After the September 11 attacks, the term "enemy combatant" was used by the George W. Bush administration to include an alleged member of al-Qaeda or the Taliban being held in detention by the U.S. government. In this sense, "enemy combatant" actually refers to persons the United States regards as unlawful combatants, a category of persons who do not qualify for prisoner-of-war status under the Geneva Conventions. However, unlike unlawful combatants who qualify for some protections under the Four ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torture Memos
A set of legal memoranda known as the "Torture Memos" (officially the Memorandum Regarding Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside The United States) were drafted by John Yoo as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States and signed in August 2002 by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, head of the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice. They advised the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States Department of Defense, and the president on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques—mental and physical torment and coercion such as prolonged sleep deprivation, binding in stress positions, and waterboarding—and stated that such acts, widely regarded as torture, might be legally permissible under an expansive interpretation of presidential authority during the " War on Terror." Following accounts of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, one of the memos was leaked to the press in Ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Yoo
John Choon Yoo (; born July 10, 1967) is a South Korean-born American legal scholar and former government official who serves as the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Yoo became known for his legal opinions concerning executive power, warrantless wiretapping, and the Geneva Conventions while serving in the George W. Bush administration, during which he was the author of the controversial "Torture Memos" in the War on Terror. As the deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Department of Justice, Yoo wrote the Torture Memos to determine the legal limits for the torture of detainees following the September 11 attacks. The legal guidance on interrogation authored by Yoo and his successors in the OLC were rescinded by President Barack Obama in 2009. Some individuals and groups called for the investigation and prosecution of Yoo under various anti-torture and anti-war crimes statutes. A report by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unitary Executive Theory
In American law, the unitary executive theory is a constitutional law theory according to which the president of the United States has sole authority over the executive branch. The theory often comes up in jurisprudential disagreements about the president's ability to remove employees within the executive branch; transparency and access to information; discretion over the implementation of new laws; and the ability to influence agencies' rule-making. There is disagreement about the doctrine's strength and scope. More expansive versions are controversial for both constitutional and practical reasons. Since the Reagan administration, the Supreme Court has embraced a stronger unitary executive, which has been championed primarily by its conservative justices, the Federalist Society, and the Heritage Foundation. The theory is largely based on the Vesting Clause, which vests the president with the "executive Power" and places the office atop the executive branch. Critics debate ov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jay Bybee
Jay Scott Bybee (born October 27, 1953) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a senior U.S. circuit judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He has published numerous articles in law journals and has taught as a senior fellow in constitutional law at William S. Boyd School of Law. His primary research interests are in constitutional and administrative law. While serving in the Bush administration as the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, Bybee signed the controversial "Torture Memos" in August 2002. These authorized "enhanced interrogation techniques" were used in the systematic torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay detention camp beginning in 2002 and at the Abu Ghraib facility following the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003. These actions have widely been considered to be war crimes, including by other former members of the Bush administration. Early life and education Born in Oakland, California, Bybee was raised in Clark C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Office Of Legal Counsel
The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is an office in the United States Department of Justice that supports the attorney general in their role as legal adviser to the president and all executive branch agencies. It drafts legal opinions of the attorney general and provides its own written opinions and other advice in response to requests from the counsel to the president, the various agencies of the executive branch, and other components of the Department of Justice. The office reviews and comments on the constitutionality of pending legislation. The office reviews any executive orders and substantive proclamations for legality if the president proposes them. All proposed orders of the attorney general and regulations that require the attorney general's approval are reviewed. It also performs a variety of special assignments referred by the attorney general or the deputy attorney general. History The Office of Legal Counsel was created in 1934 by an act of Congress, as part of a lar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Courts-martial
A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment. In addition, courts-martial may be used to try prisoners of war for war crimes. The Geneva Conventions require that POWs who are on trial for war crimes be subject to the same procedures as would be the holding military's own forces. Finally, courts-martial can be convened for other purposes, such as dealing with violations of martial law, and can involve civilian defendants. Most navies have a standard court-martial which convenes whenever a ship is lost; this does not presume that the captain is suspected of wrongdoing, but merely that the circumstances surrounding the loss of the ship be made part of the official record. Most military for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Tribunals In The United States
Military tribunals in the United States are military courts designed to judicially try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil proceedings. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors. Military tribunals are distinct from courts-martial. A military tribunal is an inquisitorial system based on charges brought by military authorities, prosecuted by a military authority, judged by military officers, and sentenced by military officers against a member of an enemy army. The United States has made use of military tribunals or commissions, rather than rely on a court-martial, within the military justice system, during times of declared war or rebellion. Most recently, as discussed below, the administration of George W. Bush sought to use military tribunals to try " unlawful enemy combatants", mostly individuals captured abroad and held at a prison camp at a military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judge Advocate General Of The United States Army
The Judge Advocate General of the United States Army (TJAG) is the senior officer of the United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Army. Under Title 10 of the United States Code, the TJAG is appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate. Suitable candidates are recommended by the Secretary of the United States Army, Secretary of the Army. By statute, TJAG serves a four-year term as the legal adviser of the Secretary of the Army and of all officers and agencies of the Department of the Army; directs the members of the Judge Advocate General's Corps in the performance of their duties; and receives, revises, and has recorded the proceedings of courts of inquiry and military commissions . Creation The position of Judge Advocate General was the brainchild and creation of General George Washington. In a letter to the Continental Congress he wrote, "I would humbly propose that some pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
