Guantanamo Bay detainees have been allowed to initiate appeals in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, courts since the passage of the

Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) is an Act of the United States Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 30, 2005. Offered as an amendment to a supplemental defense spending bill, it contains provisions ...

(DTA) closed off the right of Guantanamo captives to submit new petitions of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...

. It substituted a right to a limited appeal to Federal Courts of appeal in Washington, D.C. The Act allowed detainees to challenge whether their

Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as " enemy combatants". The CSRTs were establi ...

s had correctly followed the rules laid out by the

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

. After the passage of the

Military Commissions Act of 2006 The Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. The Act's stated purpose was "to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of ...

(MCA) closed down the pending habeas corpus cases, attorneys for the detainees initiated both a challenge to the

constitutionality In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...

of the MCA's stripping of the right to habeas corpus; and they started initiating the appeals in the DC Federal Courts of appeal allowed by the DTA.

June 2008 rulings

On June 12, 2008, in ''

Boumediene v. Bush ''Boumediene v. Bush'', 553 U.S. 723 (2008), was a writ of ''habeas corpus'' petition made in a civilian court of the United States on behalf of Lakhdar Boumediene, a naturalized citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, held in military detention by t ...

'', the United States Supreme Court ruled the

s provided the detainees with insufficient protection, and re-opened the detainees' access to file habeas corpus. On June 23, 2008, a three judge panel reviewed the evidence used to justify Parhat's designation as an "enemy combatant" and ruled that he had never been an enemy combatant after all.

Bush Presidency response

On July 21, 2008

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the Federal government of the United States, federal government. The attorney general acts as the princi ...

Michael Mukasey Michael Bernard Mukasey (; born July 28, 1941) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States from 2007 to 2009 and as a U.S. district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of N ...

called on the Congress to pass legislation controlling how judges would review the detainees' habeas petitions. Mukasey was seeking to have the legislation control what evidence should be made public, and to proscribe releasing any of the detainees within the USA.

January 2009 ruling

On January 9, 2009,

Douglas H. Ginsburg Douglas Howard Ginsburg (born May 25, 1946) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a senior United States federal judge, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, U.S. Court of App ...

, writing for the panel, ruled that the court would not hear any additional DTA appeals.

Detainees who filed appeals in federal court

References

{{Reflist United States habeas corpus case law *