Salim Ahmed Hamdan v. Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, et al. (548 U.S. 557)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 29, 2006 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 548 U.S. 557 · 126 S. Ct. 2749
- Decided
- June 29, 2006
- Term
- October Term 2005
- Vote
- 5–3
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I through IV, Parts VI through VI-D-iii, Part VI-D-v, and Part VII, and an opinion with respect to Parts V and VI-Div, in which Justice Souter, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer join. Petitioner Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national, is in custody at an American prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In November 2001, during hostilities between the United States and the Taliban (which then governed Afghanistan), Hamdan was captured by militia forces and turned over to the U. S. military. In June 2002, he was transported to Guantanamo Bay. Over a year later, the President deemed him eligible for trial by military commission for then-unspecified crimes. After another year had passed, Hamdan was charged with one count of conspiracy “to commit . . . offenses triable by military commission.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 65a. Hamdan filed petitions for writs of habeas corpus and mandamus to challenge the Executive Branch’s intended means of prosecuting this charge. He concedes that a court-martial constituted in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U. S. C. §801 et seq. (2000 ed. and Supp. Ill), would have authority to try him. His objection is that the military commission the President has convened lacks such authority, for two principal reasons: First,…
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