In reaction to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, Congress passed
the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or AUMF.
The AUMF granted authority to the President to use all appropriate and necessary force
against people suspected of engaging in terrorism against the United States.
U.S. citizen Yaser Hamdi was arrested in Afghanistan in 2001 and turned over to U.S. military forces.
Hamdi was taken into custody as an “enemy combatant,” on suspicion of affiliating
with al-Qaeda.
U.S. military personnel interrogated Hamdi, then sent him to detention centers in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, Virginia, and South Carolina.
At no time was Hamdi charged with a crime, provided legal counsel, or afforded the opportunity
to contest his detainment.
Hamdi’s father filed a habeas corpus petition on Hamdi’s behalf, seeking legal counsel,
an order to stop interrogation, an evidentiary hearing on the factual basis for his detention,
a declaration that Hamdi’s detention was unconstitutional, and an order that Hamdi
be released.
The district court appointed a lawyer and ordered that he be given access to Hamdi,
but the court of appeals reversed, arguing the government’s security interests deserved
more deference.
The government argued it had the right to hold Hamdi indefinitely, because military
screening teams had determined he was an “enemy combatant.”
In support of its motion to dismiss, the government submitted a declaration from a defense department
advisor (the Mobbs Declaration) setting forth the basis for Hamdi’s detention.
The district court concluded the Mobbs Declaration, which was the only evidence the government
offered, was not enough to justify Hamdi’s indefinite detention and ordered the government
to turn over more evidence for in camera review.
The Fourth Circuit reversed, finding the Mobbs Declaration, “if accurate,” sufficient
to justify Hamdi’s detention.
The court of appeals dismissed Hamdi’s habeas petition.
Hamdi petitioned the United States Supreme Court for certiorari, which was granted.
Justice O’Connor, writing for the majority, vacated the judgment and remanded the case.
O’Connor found that, while Hamdi’s seizure, interrogation, and detention were valid under
the authority that Congress granted to the President in the AUMF, Hamdi’s continued,
indefinite detention without due process violated his constitutional rights.
Under the laws of war, an enemy combatant may be detained only as long as active hostilities
last, but the war on terror is unique; Hamdi could be detained for life.
The majority concluded that traditional due process analysis was inappropriate.
Thus, it applied the test articulated in Mathews v. Eldridge.
Hamdi’s constitutional rights had to be balanced against the government’s security
interest, and the Court had to consider the risk of erroneous deprivation of rights posed
by lesser procedural safeguards and the value of additional procedures.
The Court held that the government must provide a citizen-detainee challenging his classification
as an enemy combatant with “notice of the factual basis for his classification” and
a fair opportunity to rebut the government’s factual assertions before a neutral decision-maker.
Beyond these basic elements, the Court found that the government could modify trial procedures,
such as by admitting hearsay or employing a presumption in favor of government evidence,
to help reduce the burden on the executive of conducting such proceedings during military
struggles.
Justice Souter concurred in part and dissented in part.
Souter concluded that the AUMF did not authorize Hamdi’s detention.
Thus, Hamdi’s continued incarceration violated the Non-Detention Act, which prohibits the
detention of an American citizen unless pursuant to an act of Congress.
Because Hamdi was not being held according to any statutory authorization or the laws
of war, Souter argued that Hamdi should be released with no further procedures required.
Justices Scalia disagreed with his colleagues that there should be a special process for
determining the status of citizen-enemy combatants.
Scalia argued that because Hamdi was a U.S. citizen, he should have been charged criminally
as a traitor and provided with all the constitutional protections of the Due Process Clause and
procedural safeguards of the traditional criminal justice system.
The only alternative to this procedure, in Scalia’s view, was a valid suspension of
habeas corpus by Congress.
In Justice Thomas’s dissent, he argued that the President and Congress, not the courts,
should decide the appropriate means of determining enemy combatant status through an exercise
of their respective war powers.
As such, Thomas would have denied Hamdi’s habeas petition without remand.
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld was a hugely important decision in terms of defining executive powers and
the meaning of due process in the war on terror, which is in many ways unlike the conflicts
the U.S. has been involved with in the past.
Hamdi reaffirmed that citizens, even citizens captured abroad and classified as enemy combatants,
still had a right to minimum due process.
The same day, the Supreme Court also handed down its ruling in Rasul v. Bush that civil
courts had jurisdiction to hear habeas petitions from foreign nationals detained at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.
Together, these two cases represented a limited, but calculated check on the expansion of executive
power post-9/11 and a reaffirmation of the judiciary’s role in safeguarding individual
rights, even in times of national emergency.
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