Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism
Encyclopedia
On November 13, 2001 U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 issued a Military Order entitled Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism.

The order:
  1. Defines which individuals the President considers subject to the order.
  2. States that the Secretary of Defense will be ultimately responsible for the individuals.
  3. Outlines the conditions under which the Secretary of Defense should detain the individuals.
  4. Specifies that those individuals who were to be tried would be tried before military commissions
    Guantanamo military commission
    The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...

    , and sets out some broad guidelines for how those military commissions should be conducted.
  5. Orders other agencies to assist the Secretary of Defense.
  6. Grants the Secretary of Defense additional powers.
  7. Sets out that the Secretary of Defense has almost unlimited authority over the individuals.
  8. States that the order will be published in the Federal Register
    Federal Register
    The Federal Register , abbreviated FR, or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains most routine publications and public notices of government agencies...

    .

Controversy

Critics describe military commissions as, literally, unprecedented -- that the officials implementing the commissions would be making up the rules as they went along. However, there is some precedence in US history of Ad Hoc military tribunals.

Critics pointed out that the military commissions lacked established rules of evidence.

Critics asked why the individuals couldn't be tried before courts martial or before the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Federal courts.
The justification offered by the executive branch was that the military commissions would save time.

When legal challenges had postponed the commissions for several years critics claimed that if the Bush administration had allowed the suspects to be tried before established courts of law the trials would have been finished years ago.

Judicial branch ruled the commissions unconstitutional

US District Court Justice James Robertson
James Robertson (judge)
James Robertson is a United States federal judge serving on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Robertson graduated from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, and received a B.A. from Princeton University in 1959. He served in the United States...

 ruled, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military...

, that the military commissions were unconstitutional. A three judge appeals panel overturned Robertson's ruling. President Bush appointed John Roberts
John Roberts
John Glover Roberts, Jr. is the 17th and current Chief Justice of the United States. He has served since 2005, having been nominated by President George W. Bush after the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist...

, one of the judges on that panel, to the vacant post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...

 on the next business day. Justice John Roberts
John Roberts
John Glover Roberts, Jr. is the 17th and current Chief Justice of the United States. He has served since 2005, having been nominated by President George W. Bush after the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist...

 had to recuse himself when the appeal appeared before the United States Supreme Court. On June 29, 2006 the Supreme Court upheld Robertson's initial ruling 5-3. That ruling was later superseded by the Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States 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. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...

.
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