Military Commissions
144 Articles

Can Detainees Plead Their Way Out of Guantánamo?
One of the more curious tidbits to emerge from the Senate Armed Services Committee’s draft of the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (which the Committee approved…

The Proposed Military Commissions Fix Is Anything But
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…

Obama’s Plan Is Not a Guantánamo North
President Obama’s plan to close Guantánamo has seemingly been criticized by all sides of the political spectrum. At a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee this…

Closing Guantánamo: Before You Accuse Congress, Take a Look at Your Administration
Five years ago today, President Obama issued Executive Order 13567, which established the Periodic Review Board (PRB) process to review every “forever” detainee in Guantánamo…

Excellent summary of GTMO myths . . . and a classic case of the “false equivalence fallacy”
A while back I wrote here about how remarkably successful President Obama’s efforts have been to fundamentally transform, to the point of elimination, the U.S. practice of…

Torture and Transparency in the Military Commissions
America’s war court is back in session at Guantánamo, with yet more pretrial proceedings in the case of the five 9/11 defendants (alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,…

The President’s Plan for Closing the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility
It’s here. The President proposes that once current transfer efforts are completed this year, the remaining 30 to 60 GTMO detainees ought to be detained in a U.S. facility. This…

When Did the War With al-Qaeda Start?
On Wednesday, the DC Circuit is scheduled to hear oral arguments on a request to halt the military commission prosecution of Guantánamo detainee Abd al-Rahim Hussein al-Nashiri.…

Don’t Forget the Other Legal Issues in the 9/11 Trial
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…

Why should the Constitution require Article III courts for criminal trials of federal offenses?
[UPDATED for clarification.] Many thanks to Charlie Dunlap for his thoughtful response to my posts (here and here) about al-Bahlul and the Article III question in that case. Our…

Military Commissions and Fairness
My friend Marty Lederman provides a lot of fascinating commentary about the en banc rehearing in the Al-Bahlul case (here and here). I’d like to focus on just part of Marty’s…

The More Things Stay the Same: Another Week of Military Commission Hearings
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…