American Civil Liberties Union

The amendment makes clear that the U.S. is off-limits to indefinite military detention and that military commissions cannot be used for civilians in the United States.

Earlier this month at Harvard Law School, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer and Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith, who in 2003 and 2004 led the Bush administration’s Office of Legal Counsel, debated the legitimacy of controversial national security policies relating to targeted killing, indefinite detention and military commissions. The debate, which was sponsored by the South Asian Law Students Association, was introduced by law student Al-Amyn Sumar and moderated by Professor Dan Meltzer, who served as Principal Deputy Counsel to President Obama in 2009 and 2010.

Today, the cases of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other prisoners accused of participating in the 9/11 attacks were officially referred for trial by military commission at Guantánamo Bay. Prosecutors have 30 days to hold an arraignment, which American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony D. Romero plans to attend. In April 2011, the Obama administration reversed a 2009 decision to try the men in federal court and decided instead to try them at Guantánamo using military commissions that have been broadly criticized.

In an order made public today, a military commissions judge at Guantánamo Bay announced that he will hear oral argument on the ACLU’s challenge to censorship of torture at the trial of the 9/11 defendants.

In May, we filed a motion asking the military commission to deny the government’s request to suppress statements by the defendants about their treatment while in U.S. custody, including torture and other abuse.  As we said in our motion,