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Courts Reject Administration's Detention Policies in War on Terrorism


2nd Circuit Rules President Has No Authority to Detain Americans Without Charge

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled 2-1 that the U.S. government must release Jose Padilla, an American citizen who was seized on U.S. soil as an enemy combatant, from military custody within 30 days. LCHR coordinated three amicus briefs in the case. The court’s majority opinion, issued December 18, echoed the basic arguments of a Lawyers Committee’s brief -- co-signed by the Cato Institute and others - on the President’s lack of authority to detain U.S. citizens without charge.

Read the decision

Read LCHR press statement

Background on the Padilla case


Guantanamo Detainees Have Right To Habeas Appeals in US Courts Says 9th Circuit

The Lawyers Committee welcomes the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit establishing that U.S. courts have the authority to hear the claims of Guantanamo Bay detainees who allege they are being unlawfully held. More»


Prosecuting Hussein

Tribunal Faces Challenges
to Legitimacy

The arrest of Saddam Hussein gives new urgency to a proposal by the Iraqi Governing Council to create a special tribunal to try those responsible for gross human rights violations. The Lawyers Committee supports the creation of a tribunal to prosecute these crimes. But in order for the tribunal to be successful it must address several key challenges. More»

Read Fiona McKay's Op-Ed "Give Hussein Due Process" in the Miami Herald

Brief Overview of the Iraqi Special Tribunal for Crimes Against Humanity

Myrna MackGuatemala:
Inter-American Court Rules in Favor of Mack


The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights hailed the decision of the Inter-American Court for Human Rights in the Myrna Mack case as a victory for human rights in Guatemala. Myrna Mack, a Guatemalan anthropologist was killed in 1990. The Mack case, which remains before the domestic criminal courts, has become a symbol of the prevailing impunity in Guatemala for serious human rights abuses committed in the country by members of the security forces. More»

Background information on Myrna Mack case

More information on human rights defenders
in Guatemala


Detainees Abused in Brooklyn Detention
Center DOJ
Report Says


Guards at an immigration detention facility in Brooklyn physically and verbally abused immigrants who were detained in the aftermath of 9/11, according to a new report released by the Department of Justice's Inspector General. More»

The Case
of Yaser Hamdi

Pentagon Allows Hamdi to see Lawyer

Read Deborah Pearlstein's Op-Ed "Detained at the whim of the president" in the International Herald Tribune

The Defense Department said on Tuesday that Yaser Hamdi, an American citizen who has been held in incommunicado military confinement for nearly two years, will be allowed access to a lawyer.

Read LCHR statement on Pentagon decision to allow Hamdi access to lawyer

Former POWs Urge Supreme Court to Hear U.S. Citizen Detainee’s Appeal


Former U.S. prisoners of war, including Ambassador Douglas “Pete” Peterson, filed a friend-of-the-court brief Dec. 3 in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Yaser Hamdi’s challenge to his indefinite, incommunicado detention. More»

Read the Amicus Brief


LCHR Urges Pentagon to Open Military Commission Trials
to NGO Observers

The Lawyers Committee is urging the Pentagon to resolve whether and under what circumstances non-governmental organizations would be permitted to observe military commission trials, which Pentagon officials have suggested are soon to commence.

Read full text of letter

Background on military commissions

More News»

Oppose the
CLEAR ACT


Write Ridge & Improve Detention Policies for Asylum Seekers


Call for the Immediate Release of Egyptian Ashraf Ibrahim

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