Opinion ID: 1026199
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the detention of al-marri is consistent with the limits established by our constitution on the military detention of those lawfully on american soil.

Text: The text of the AUMF clearly authorizes al-Marri's detention. Our inquiry cannot end here, however. There are constitutional limits on what Congress can authorize the executive to do. Those limits must respect both the legitimate operation of the war powers and simultaneously protect against their abuse  for military detentions that bear no relationship to the conduct of war serve only to erode the basic charter of our rights. Those of us who believe the AUMF applies simply cannot avoid the serious constitutional issues that result. Because Congress plainly cannot authorize the President to sweep people off the street without a constitutional basis for doing so, we must also address whether the Constitution permits Congress to authorize the military detention of someone, such as al-Marri, who was lawfully residing in this country when seized on American soil. Boumediene v. Bush, 128 S.Ct. at 2271-72. At some point the obligation arises not just to ask whether, but why  as in why the military detention of those lawfully in this country is a constitutionally permissible exercise. And not just why, but when  as in when the detention of lawful residents is permissible, and when it is not. If the basic wh questions do not arise in this case, then I doubt they ever will. The American constitutional tradition is not consonant with the prospect of martial law in other than necessitous circumstances. See U.S. Const. art. I, § 9, cl. 2; Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 2, 18 L.Ed. 281 (1866); see also The Posse Comitatus Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1385 (2000). But the American constitutional tradition likewise does not countenance judicial interference in democratic efforts to ward off war's gravest dangers. See U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 11-16; id. at art. II, § 2, cl. 1; Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 635-37, 72 S.Ct. 863, 96 L.Ed. 1153 (1952) (granting presidential action taken pursuant to a congressional authorization the widest latitude of judicial interpretation) (Jackson, J., concurring). So our obligation becomes one of treading carefully, lest we cross lines without reflection. It is here I believe the plurality falls short. By interpreting the AUMF in a manner so plainly contrary to its text, the plurality all but states that Congress is devoid of any constitutional authority to authorize detention of al-Marri. Indeed, it proclaims that the application of the AUMF to allow the military detention of an individual apprehended on American soil and with no foreign battlefield experience would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution  and the country. See ante at 252-53. In holding the AUMF not to authorize al-Marri's detention in the face of a plain textual instruction otherwise, the plurality lays bare its constitutional misgivings about this detention. In fact, the plurality suggests as much by noting the constitutional concerns and serious constitutional questions that would attend an interpretation of the AUMF that permits the detention of persons such as al-Marri. Ante at 226. So the plurality proposes to avoid all these issues. The plurality is surely right that, whenever possible, a statute such as the AUMF should be construed to avoid serious constitutional problems. Ante at 244-45 (internal quotation marks omitted). But there is a limit to the extent to which courts may disregard statutory text in the name of ducking difficult constitutional questions. As Boumediene puts it: The canon of constitutional avoidance does not supplant traditional modes of statutory interpretation.... We cannot ignore the text and purpose of a statute in order to save it. Boumediene, 128 S.Ct. at 2271. Several members of this court have made clear that the AUMF simply cannot be read in the manner the plurality proposes. Our basic task remains that of giving a text some semblance of the meaning that Congress intended for it, and the doctrine of constitutional avoidance does not absolve us of that duty. Thus, in the name of constitutional avoidance, the plurality has denied the AUMF its plain effect. At the same time, however, the government has failed to develop principled limitations on its position, thus causing concern that the executive is seeking an authority that is uncomfortably open-ended. See Hamdi, 542 U.S. at 516, 124 S.Ct. 2633 (noting that the Government has never provided any court with the full criteria that it uses in classifying individuals as enemy combatants). Because no absolute approach is tenable, there must be appropriate criteria for determining when the government may constitutionally detain a suspected terrorist as an enemy combatant. This is consistent with the Supreme Court's plurality opinion in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507, 124 S.Ct. 2633, 159 L.Ed.2d 578 (2004). [4] The threshold question in Hamdi was whether the Executive has the authority to detain citizens who qualify as `enemy combatants.' Id. at 516, 124 S.Ct. 2633. The Court found that the AUMF did authorize the President to engage in the fundamental incident[s] of waging war. Id. at 519, 124 S.Ct. 2633. This, the Court explained, included the military detention of persons properly classified as enemy combatants. Id. at 518-19, 124 S.Ct. 2633 (quoting Ex parte Quirin, 317 U.S. 1, 28, 30, 63 S.Ct. 2, 87 L.Ed. 3 (1942)). The Court then addressed who was an enemy combatant. Rather than delineate the term's full scope, the Court answered only the narrow question of whether Hamdi, based on the facts alleged, qualified as an enemy combatant. Hamdi, 542 U.S. at 516, 124 S.Ct. 2633. The Court held that someone who was part of or supporting forces hostile to the United States or coalition partners in Afghanistan and who engaged in an armed conflict against the United States there, could be treated as an enemy combatant. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). The plurality has consistently overread Hamdi, to the effect that only those engaged in armed conflict on a foreign battlefield fall into the enemy combatant category. See ante at 227-30. But that is not at all what Hamdi said. Recognizing [t]here is some debate as to the proper scope of this term, 542 U.S. at 516, 124 S.Ct. 2633, Hamdi observed that the legal category of enemy combatant has not been elaborated upon in great detail, id. at 522 n. 1, 124 S.Ct. 2633. Instead, [t]he permissible bounds of the category will be defined by the lower courts as subsequent cases are presented to them. Id. This is such a case. Because al-Marri's case raises such fundamental questions about the executive's power to militarily detain suspected terrorists lawfully residing in this country, it imposes the obligation to examine the precise contours of the enemy combatant category and to develop a framework for determining who under our Constitution may be lawfully detained. [5] My analysis thus begins with an examination of traditional law of war principles that must underlie any understanding of the enemy combatant category (subsection A). Next, I shall explain how these principles have consistently accommodated changes in the conduct of war and in international relations (subsection B). I shall then discuss the recent changes associated with the war on terrorism, namely the threat of stateless actors who primarily target innocent civilians and may come to possess weapons of mass destruction (subsection C). Based on the principles underlying the law of war and in light of the new circumstances in this particular conflict, I will elucidate what I believe to be the proper criteria for determining who may qualify constitutionally as an enemy combatant (subsection D) and demonstrate that these criteria are consistent with existing Supreme Court and circuit precedent on the matter (subsection E). Finally, I will apply these criteria to the facts of al-Marri's detention (subsection F). I can discern no shortcut to this inquiry. Indeed, I think this is the only way to approach and resolve al-Marri's case.