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The Legacy of the Magna Carta in Recent Supreme Court Decisions on Detainees' Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2010

Robert Pallitto
Robert Pallitto
Affiliation:
Seton Hall University
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Extract

The legacy of the Magna Carta is apparent in the Supreme Court's recent decisions regarding detainees' rights. Asked to evaluate strong claims of executive power, the Court has had occasion to consider the origin and scope of habeas corpus, which many scholars see as a product of the Magna Carta. The majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush (2008) traced the history of the writ of habeas corpus back to the Magna Carta and relied on that lineage to rule that Guantanamo detainees were entitled to petition for habeas corpus, even though Congress had explicitly denied them that right in the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA) and the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act (DTA).

Type
Symposium
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 483 - 486
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2010

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