‘Hamdan v. Rumsfeld’: Path to a Landmark Ruling

by Nina Totenberg

Audio for this story will be available at approx. 7:30 p.m. ET on September 5, 2006

All Things Considered, September 5, 2006 · In the jargon of the Supreme Court, we talk about “landmark cases.” Some, of course, are more landmark than others. But by any yardstick, the June 2006 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld was one for the history books.

Hamdan was the case in which the high court invalidated the system set up by President Bush to try accused war criminals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The court’s 5-3 decision is widely seen as the most important ruling on executive power in decades, or perhaps ever.

But cases like this do not materialize out of thin air, and the Hamdan case, like Brown v. Board of Education, was carefully nurtured, with the defense lawyers facing a constant stream of difficult issues. A wrong decision at any point could have ended up aborting the case.

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