Hamdi v. Rumsfeld

Hamdi v. Rumsfeld is a U.S. Supreme Court case brought on behalf of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a U.S. citizen who is being held as an enemy combatant. Captured while fighting for the Taliban against the United States in Aghanistan in 2001, Hamdi has been held in Guantanamo Bay without access to an attorney and without normal Constitutional protections.

The major question presented in the case is whether the U.S. Constitution allows U.S. citizens to be held indefinitely without ordinary Constitutional rights because they have been declared to be an enemy combatant. A second question posed is whether or not, under the separation of powers doctrine, a court can question the designation of a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant. This second question arose because it was initially alleged that Hamdi was not an enemy combatant, but a circuit court ruled that this was not within the court's authority to decide.

References

• [rtsp://video.c-span.org/archive/sc/sc042804_sc1.rm Oral Argument in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld]
• Supreme Court documents on Hamdi v. Rumsfeld

See also

• Rumsfeld v. Padilla, a very similar case brought in the same year
• Rasul v. Bush, a similar case involving non-U.S.-citizens
• Donald_Rumsfeld