Guantanamo is Here: The Military Commissions Act and Noncitizen Vulnerability

Chicago Legal Forum, Vol. 2007, p. 1, 2007

American University, WCL Research Paper No. 08-27

26 Pages Posted: 24 Oct 2007 Last revised: 21 Jan 2008

Abstract

When Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), it ostensibly was concerned with the treatment of the approximately 400 noncitizen detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Indeed, the Act emerged in response to two Supreme Court cases that struck down central features of the Bush Administration's Guantanamo policy, and sought to erect a comprehensive scheme for the detention and trial of detainees there. But on its face and according to its own logic, the MCA extends well beyond Guantanamo. This Article explores how the legal regime created by the MCA to regulate noncitizens detained outside the territorial United States traverses national boundaries and necessarily implicates the rights, status, and condition of noncitizens within the United States. In this way, the MCA makes clear that while geographically remote, Guantanamo is tethered to the United States, and in the legal, cultural, and political imaginations, is contiguous with it.

Keywords: Military Commissions Act, Guantanamo, National Security, Immigration, Citizenship, Noncitizens

JEL Classification: K19, K4, N4

Suggested Citation

Ahmad, Muneer I., Guantanamo is Here: The Military Commissions Act and Noncitizen Vulnerability. Chicago Legal Forum, Vol. 2007, p. 1, 2007, American University, WCL Research Paper No. 08-27, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1024222

Muneer I. Ahmad (Contact Author)

Yale Law School ( email )

P.O. Box 208215
New Haven, CT 06520-8215
United States

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