4th Circuit Upholds Due Process Rights of 'Enemy Combatants'

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, widely perceived as the most pro-government federal appeals court, has ruled against the Bush administration's position that the president has the authority to detain indefinitely anyone he unilaterally identifies as an "enemy combatant." Since Congress has not suspended the writ of habeas corpus, a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit said, the administration has to either charge Ali al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident who has been held at the Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina, since June 2003, or let him go.

A PDF of the opinion is available here. Harvey Silverglate's January 2005 reason essay on detention of "enemy combatants," both within the U.S. and at Guantanamo Bay, is here. My columns on the subject are here (June 2002), here (September 2002), here (June 2003), here (August 2003), here (July 2004), here (September 2005), here (December 2005), here (April 2006), and here (October 2006).