Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/16pdf/15-1358_6khn.pdf
Page Number: 6

Cite as:  582 U. S. ____ (2017) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

Nos. 15–1358, 15–1359 and 15–1363 
_________________ 

15–1358 

JAMES W. ZIGLAR, PETITIONER 
v. 
AHMER IQBAL ABBASI, ET AL. 

JOHN D. ASHCROFT, FORMER ATTORNEY 
GENERAL, ET AL., PETITIONERS 
v. 
AHMER IQBAL ABBASI, ET AL. 

15–1359 

15–1363 

DENNIS HASTY, ET AL., PETITIONERS 
v. 
AHMER IQBAL ABBASI, ET AL. 

ON WRITS OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT 

[June 19, 2017] 

JUSTICE  KENNEDY  delivered  the  opinion  of  the  Court, 

except as to Part IV–B. 

After the September 11 terrorist attacks in this country,
and  in  response  to  the  deaths,  destruction,  and  dangers
they  caused,  the  United  States  Government  ordered  hun-
dreds  of  illegal  aliens  to  be  taken  into  custody  and  held. 
Pending  a  determination  whether  a  particular  detainee
had  connections  to  terrorism,  the  custody,  under  harsh
conditions  to  be  described,  continued.  In  many  instances
custody  lasted  for  days  and  weeks,  then  stretching  into
months.  Later, some of the aliens who had been detained