Civil Liberties Online
PART D: American Citizens Detained as Enemy Combatants
Treatment of enemy combatants is not something affected by the USA PATRIOT Act, but it has been a subject of much attention. See Secret Evidence in the War on Terror, 118 Harv. L. Rev. 1962 (2005) (discussing that despite the ruling in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, citizen enemy combatants do not always receive proper due process).
While most of the enemy combatant issues have involved foreign citizens, some American citizens have been detained as enemy combatants. See Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 124 S. Ct. 2633 (2004) (ordering that the detainee, an American-born individual captured in Afghanistan, be granted reasoning why he was labeled an enemy combatant and a fair opportunity to rebut the assertion); see also Padilla v. Rumsfeld, 256 F. Supp. 2d 218 (S.D.N.Y. 2003) (allowing the government to appeal the court’s previous decision to allow the American-born detained on United States soil consultation with counsel). [For a discussion of how the two aforementioned cases directly relate to this civil liberties project, please refer to CATEGORY 0.] See The Committee on Federal Courts, The Indefinite Detention of “Enemy Combatants”: Balancing Due Process and National Security in the Context of the War on Terror, 59 The Record 41 (2004) (concluding that the holding of American citizens based on the Executive’s independent determination they are enemy combatants violates any form of due process that has been implemented in this country).
