Freedom from Guantánamo: How the Court Curtailed Prerogative Powers and Increased Civil Liberties for Detainees
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Date
2013-04-29
Authors
Thane, Lindsay M.
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
During the post 9/11 era the President made claims to expansive Commander-in-Chief Powers, yet the United States’ functioning as a constitutional democracy necessitates a sharing of power among all three branches. Executive claims to prerogative powers were scrutinized by the Court for disregarding the civil liberties of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, an unprecedented step which led to this inquiry of whether the Court’s post 9/11 decisions curtailed unilateral Executive policy making and safeguarded the civil liberties afforded to detainees at Guantánamo? This study analyzed the Court’s decisions in the terror cases and their effect on Executive policies, as well as Congress’ activeness in shaping detainee policy and placing checks on the Bush Administration’s prerogative powers. The Court’s decisions were effective in restraining Executive power, but they only somewhat protected and restored the detainees’ civil liberties. This study provides a framework which outlines how civil liberties can begin to be restored.
Description
Submitted to the Undergraduate Library Research Award scholarship competition: 2013-2014. 91 pages.