Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006)

Facts

Salim Ahmed Hamdan is a Yemeni citizen born around 1970. Both the government and Hamdan agree that since 1996 and at the time of capture, Hamdan was the bodyguard and driver for Osama Bin Laden.  However, Hamdan and the government disagree as to the conditions under which he was captured.  Hamdan states that he was captured by bounty hunters in Afghanistan while attempting to go be with his family in Pakistan.  The hunters then turned him over to the United States.  The government alleges that he was driving a vehicle carrying missiles at the time of his capture.

Procedural Background

President Bush deemed Hamdan eligible for trial by a military commission and as a result of that proceeding Hamdan was charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes.  Hamdan filed petitions for mandamus and habeas corpus claiming that a military commission has no lawful authority to try him.  The district court granted habeas relief, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed.  The Supreme Court granted review.  While Hamdan's case was pending before the Supreme Court, Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, maintaining that no court shall have authority to hear an application for habeas corpus filed by an alien detained at Guantanamo Bay unless otherwise authorized by the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.

Holdings

1. The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 did not deprive the Supreme Court of jurisdiction to hear this case.
2. Military commissions are not expressly authorized by any congressional act.
3. The procedures employed by military commissions violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
4. U.S. Military commissions do not satisfy the requirements of the Geneva Convention.

Claims and Causes of Action

Hamdan filed petitions for writs of habeas corpus and mandamus to challenge the Executive Branch's use of military commissions. His objection is that the military commission the President has convened lacks authority for two reasons:

1. Neither congressional Act nor the common law of war supports trial by this commission for the crime of conspiracy--an offense that, Hamdan says, is not a violation of the law of war.
2. The procedures that the President has adopted to try him violate the most basic tenets of military and international law, including the principle that a defendant must be permitted to see and hear the evidence against him.

Case Summary

Where is Salim Hamdan now?

On June 5, 2007, Hamdan had all charges against him dropped because the Military Commissions Act of 2006 only authorized the trial of “unlawful enemy combatants.” Hamdan’s Combatant Status Review Tribunal held that he was only an enemy combatant, not an unlawful combatant.

He was then held, without any charges, as an enemy combatant. One July 21, 2008 he was brought up on new charges and found guilty of "providing material support" to al Qaida but was cleared of terrorism conspiracy charges.  In the first post-War on Terror decision to come out of a military tribunal, Hamdan was sentenced to five and a half years of imprisonment by a military jury. He had already served five years, so in November 2008 the U.S. transferred him to Yemen to serve the rest of his sentence. He was released on January 8, 2009.