Evidentiary Rules Governing Guantanamo Habeas Petitions: Their Effects and Consequences

Abstract

Beginning in 2001, the United States began transporting hundreds of persons captured overseas in the "War on Terror" to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantdnamo Bay, Cuba. They were kept at Guantdnamo specifically to insulate from judicial review the military's decision to detain them. Seven years later, the Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush granted Guantdnamo detainees the right to petition for the writ of habeas corpus in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Court held that detainees must have "a meaningful opportunity to demonstrate that [they are] being held pursuant to the erroneous application or interpretation of relevant law." The Court's central concern was with the habeas court's power to admit and consider relevant exculpatory evidence, a power necessary "[flor the writ of habeas corpus, or its substitute, to function."