The challenge : Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the fight over presidential power / Jonathan Mahler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mahler, Jonathan, 1969-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hamdan, Salim Ahmed, 1970---Trials, litigation, etc.

Hamdan, Salim Ahmed.

Rumsfeld, Donald, 1932-2021--Trials, litigation, etc.

Rumsfeld, Donald.

Rumsfeld, Donald, 1932-2021.

Hamdan, Salim Ahmed, 1970-.

Military courts--United States.

Military courts.

Chauffeurs.

United States.

Jurisdiction--United States.

Jurisdiction.

Terrorism--Prevention--Law and legislation--United States.

Terrorism.

Terrorism--Prevention--Law and legislation.

International and municipal law--United States.

International and municipal law.

Combatants and noncombatants (International law).

Chauffeurs--Legal status, laws, etc.

Physical Description:

334 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

Summary:

In November 2001, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a 31-year-old Yemeni, was captured and turned over to U.S. forces in Afghanistan. After confessing to being Osama bin Laden's driver, Hamdan was transferred to Guantánamo Bay, and was soon designated by President Bush for trial before a special military tribunal. The Pentagon assigned a military defense lawyer to represent him, a 35-year-old graduate of the Naval Academy, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift. No one expected Swift to mount much of a defense. The rules of the tribunals, America's first in over fifty years, were stacked against him--assuming he wasn't expected to throw the game altogether. Instead, with the help of a young constitutional law professor at Georgetown, Neal Katyal, Swift sued the Bush Administration over the legality of the tribunals. In 2006, Katyal argued the case before the Supreme Court and won. This is the inside story of what may be the most important decision on presidential power and the rule of law in the history of the Supreme Court.--From publisher description.

Contents:

The JAG

The trials

VUCA

The professor

The civil power

A drowning man

The lawsuit

Tugging the lion's tail

"Oh, I doubt that seriously, Sir"

"Judge assigned: we won the lottery"

An indefinite recess

"We're going to crush you"

Who we are

The Supreme Court responds

Getting to five

Where's the food?

The countdown

The argument

The heroes of Guantanamo?

Notes:

"Portions of this work originally appeared, in somewhat different form, in the June 13, 2004, January 8, 2006, and July 9, 2006, issues of The New York Times Magazine"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [311]-314) and index.

ISBN:

9780374223205

0374223203

OCLC:

191258624

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description