Habeas corpus petitions of Guantanamo Bay detainees information

In United States law, habeas corpus is a recourse challenging the reasons or conditions of a person's detention under color of law. The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. A persistent standard of indefinite detention without trial and incidents of torture led the operations of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to be challenged internationally as an affront to international human rights, and challenged domestically as a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution,^[1][2] including the right of petition for habeas corpus. On 19 February 2002, Guantanamo detainees petitioned in federal court for a writ of habeas corpus to review the legality of their detention.

Numerous cases were tried on this matter, with different outcomes, initially denying the right of petition and later affirming the right of petition. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denied the detainees' petitions on 30 July 2002, finding that aliens in Cuba had no access to U.S. courts.^[3] Al Odah v. United States affirmed on 11 March 2003.^[4] On 28 June 2004, the Supreme Court decided against the Government in Rasul v. Bush.^[5] Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for a five-justice majority, held that the detainees had a statutory right to petition federal courts for habeas review.^[6] That same day, the Supreme Court ruled against the Government in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld.^[7] Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote the four-justice plurality opinion finding that an American citizen detained in Guantanamo had a constitutional right to petition federal courts for habeas review under the Due Process Clause.^[6]

In Boumediene v. Bush (2008) it was established Guantanamo detainees have a right to habeas corpus and are able to bring petition to U.S courts. It also held that the Guantanamo detainees were entitled to the legal protections of the US Constitution and from then on, the Combatant Status Review Tribunal would be inadequate. The result of this case has seen many habeas corpus cases refiled. Detainees have had over 200 writs of habeas corpus submitted on their behalf.

The camp was established by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration in 2002 during the War on Terror following the September 11, 2001 attacks, operating at a level of secrecy from the outset where even the number of persons held in the camp was difficult to ascertain. The United States Department of Defense (DoD) at first kept secret the identity of the individuals held in Guantanamo, but after losing attempts to defy a Freedom of Information Act request from the Associated Press, the U.S. military officially acknowledged holding 779 prisoners.^[8]

The geographical situation of the camp in Cuba permits American personnel from the DoD and the broader intelligence community to operate at the far boundaries of constitutional safeguards^[9] with less personal exposure to litigation. Torture conducted by American personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq during this same timeframe led to eleven military personnel from the 372nd Military Police Company being convicted in 2005 for war crimes. At Guantanamo Bay, the military administration has consistently prioritized national security over conflicting interests of due process, while slow-pedaling even the most basic disclosures. Many detainees were held for extreme durations without charge, spanning multiple presidential administrations, even while their rights to habeas corpus remained under protracted litigation.