American Civil Liberties Union

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to review D.C. Circuit appeals court decisions in habeas corpus cases brought by seven prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.

“Four years ago, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution guarantees Guantánamo detainees the right to test the legality of their detention in federal court,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project. “The court’s decision in Boumediene v. Bush was a historic ruling, but unfortunately it has been severely undermined by a series of decisions from the federal appeals court in Washington. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear even a single habeas appeal by a Guantánamo detainee in the past four years despite those decisions is inexplicable. Today’s announcement continues that trend and is profoundly disappointing.”