Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld
Subtitle: a historic challenge to the president
By: Jonathan Mahler.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 334
ISBN-13: 9780374223205
Subjects: Hamdan, Salim Ahmed, -- 1970- -- Trials, litigation, etc; Rumsfeld, Donald, -- 1932- -- Trials, litigation, etc; Military courts -- United States; Jurisdiction -- United States; War on Terrorism, 2001- -- Law and legislation -- United States; International and municipal law -- United States; Combatants and noncombatants (International law); Chauffeurs -- Legal status, laws, etc
Description: In November 2001, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a 31-year-old Yemeni, was captured and turned over to U.S. forces in Afghanistan. After confessing to being Osama bin Laden's driver, Hamdan was transferred to Guantánamo Bay, and was soon designated by President Bush for trial before a special military tribunal. The Pentagon assigned a military defense lawyer to represent him, a 35-year-old graduate of the Naval Academy, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift. No one expected Swift to mount much of a defense. The rules of the tribunals, America's first in over fifty years, were stacked against him--assuming he wasn't expected to throw the game altogether. Instead, with the help of a young constitutional law professor at Georgetown, Neal Katyal, Swift sued the Bush Administration over the legality of the tribunals. In 2006, Katyal argued the case before the Supreme Court and won. This is the inside story of what may be the most important decision on presidential power and the rule of law in the history of the Supreme Court.--From publisher description.
Notes: "Portions of this work appeared, in somewhat different form, in the June 13, 2004, January 8, 2006, and July 9, 2006 issues of The New York Times Magazine."

Includes index.