Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly Volume 36 Article 2 Number 3 Spring 2009 1-1-2009 Boumediene v. Bush and Extraterritorial Habeas Corpus in Wartime Riddhi Dasgupta Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly Part of the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation Riddhi Dasgupta, Boumediene v. Bush and Extraterritorial Habeas Corpus in Wartime, 36 Hastings Const. L.Q. 425 (2009). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol36/iss3/2 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Boumediene v. Bush and Extraterritorial Habeas Corpus in Wartime by RIDDHI DASGUPTA* How did the United States Supreme Court, in Boumediene v. Bush,' come to the conclusion that the detention facility in Guantdnamo Bay, Cuba, is indeed American territory for the purpose of habeas corpus? Why did the Court extend habeas to non-citizens as well? Which legal provisions and precedents guided the Supreme Court's analysis? The U.S. Constitution's Suspension Clause, precluding the suspension of habeas corpus except in well-defined and discrete national security urgencies, is the controlling trump card raised by the detainees. This Commentary sets the stage for a multivariable conversation about the interplay among separation of powers, rejection of executive supremacy, historic status of habeas corpus, and other factors that guided the Court. The federal habeas statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2241, extends to Guantdnamo because of practical considerations, not necessarily formal ones; and the consequences of excluding habeas corpus from Guantdnamo would have been devastating for judicial independence.