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Boumediene and Munaf

By Sean Sirrine

I'm sure all of you out there have seen the two big opinions that came out today involving habeas. What has struck me however, is that nobody seems to be comparing the outcome of the two cases.

In Boumediene, the U.S. Supreme Court held that aliens held at Guantanamo that are enemy combatants have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus.

In contrast, in Munaf the U.S. Supreme Court held that district courts may not exercise their habeas jurisdiction to enjoin the United States from transferring American citizens to a foreign sovereign government for criminal prosecution.

What is the likely outcome of these two decisions?

It seems to me that we'll just deliver over the enemy combatants that we capture to the sovereign governments who will most likely find that they can hold these prisoners indefinitely.

In related news, Israel today announced that it can hold enemy combatants indefinitely with a judicial review every six months.

Full post as published by Objective Justice on June 12, 2008 (boomark / email).