chAPTeR TweLve • The JudIcIARy 279
ity over detainees’ habeas corpus challenges were illegal.^3 The decision gave Guantánamo
detainees the right to challenge their detention in federal civil courts.
In 2009, the Obama administration abolished the category of enemy combatant and
promised to close the Guantánamo prison. (As of 2014, however, the prison remained
open.) President Obama did not, however, move to try most of the detainees in U.S. civil-
ian courts. Under the Military Commissions Act of 2009, a majority of the prisoners were
to be tried in a revised system of military commissions. Further, in May 2009, Obama
claimed the right to detain certain accused terrorists indefinitely without trial. In May
2010, a federal appeals court ruled that the administration had the right to detain prison-
ers indefinitely at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan because the prison is located on
foreign soil and within a war zone.^4The suPReme couRT AT woRk
The Supreme Court begins its regular annual term on the first Monday in October and usu-
ally adjourns in late June or early July of the next year. Special sessions may be held after
the regular term ends, but only a few cases are decided in this way. More commonly, cases
are carried over until the next regular session.
Of the total number of cases that are decided each year in U.S. courts, those reviewed
by the Supreme Court represent less than one in four thousand. Included in these, how-
ever, are decisions that profoundly affect our lives. In recent years, the United States
Supreme Court has decided issues involving freedom of speech, the right to bear arms,
health-care reform, campaign finance, capital punishment, the rights of criminal suspects,
affirmative action programs, reli-
gious freedom, abortion, states’
rights, and many other matters
with significant consequences for
the nation.
Because the Supreme Court
exercises a great deal of discretion
over the types of cases it hears,
it can influence the nation’s poli-
cies by issuing decisions in some
types of cases and refusing to
hear appeals in others, thereby
allowing lower court decisions
to stand. Indeed, the fact that
George W. Bush assumed the
presidency in 2001 instead of Al
Gore, his Democratic opponent,
was largely due to a Supreme
Court decision to review a Florida
court’s ruling. In Bush v. Gore,
the Supreme Court reversed the3. 553 U.S. 723 (2008).
- Maqaleh v. Gates, 605 F.3d 84
(D.C.Cir. 2010).
Justice clarence Thomas with his clerks. Where does the
United States Supreme Court fit in terms of the hierarchy of the federal court system in this
country? (David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)LO3: Discuss the procedures
used by the United States Supreme
Court and the various types of
opinions it hands down.9781285436388_12_ch12_271-296.indd 279 10/29/13 11:01 AM
Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.