Yaser Esam Hamdi was born an American citizen in 1980 in Louisiana. He later moved with his family to Saudi Arabia and by August 2001 was living in Afghanistan. He was captured by members of the Northern Alliance (a group opposed to the then-ruling Taliban government). After American and Alliance military action began in Afghanistan in light of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the Northern Alliance handed him over to American military forces. Hamdi claimed that he was simply an aid worker who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The American government, relying on information from a Defense Department official named Michael Mobb (the Mobb Declaration), accused Hamdi of having links to the Taliban. Hamdi was declared an enemy combatant and sent to a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Upon learning that Hamdi was an American citizen, the military moved him to a brig (military prison) in Norfolk, Virginia, but it did not give him the opportunity to challenge his confinement.
Hamdi then filed a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, claiming that, as a U.S. citizen, he must be given the opportunity to present his side of the case and to challenge the legality of his confinement. The government countered that the joint resolution of Congress entitled Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) gives the President the authority to detain combatants under certain circumstances. Furthermore, the government argued that the circumstances surrounding Hamdi's arrest were indisputable, i.e., he was captured in an active combat zone and, thus, subjected to the provisions of the AUMF.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in Hamdi's favor, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed (ruled against Hamdi), and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear his case. In a plurality opinion authored by Justice O'Connor, the Court held that, the Congressional authorization to detain enemy combatants notwithstanding, authorization notwithstanding, the due process clause of the Constitution (Amendment V) demands that an American citizen be given the opportunity to challenge the reasons for his/her confinement in federal court. |
