Habeas Extends to Bagram Detainees (Sometimes)

Read all about today’s blockbuster decision in which a U.S. federal district court held, in light of Boumediene, that detainees held at the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram, Afghanistan, have a constitutional right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. courts. A longer description and link to the 53-page opinion are here. Key caveat: habeas extends to those Bagram detainees who were picked up in countries other than Afghanistan, and later shipped to Bagram – which has come to serve not simply as a conflict theater prison, but as some sort of international holding facility for at least some number of random terrorist suspects. Whether and when the writ may extend to more traditional international armed conflict-like prisoners at Bagram? Looks like that’s yet to be determined.

More one of these days, but for now, I’m back to reading….