ABSTRACT
Ex parte Quirin has been widely cited to justify President George W. Bush's military order of November 13, 2001, allowing military commissions to try non-U.S. suspects of terrorism. The Court stated that the congressional articles of war provided for trial before military commissions of offenses. The Court avoided determining to what extent the president had consti-tutional power to create military commissions without congressional legislation. In 1942 eight Nazi saboteurs landed on the US East Coast with materiel to destroy war facilities. The saboteurs, charged with violating both the law of war and the articles of war Congress passed that authorized US entry into World War II, challenged the constitutionality of the president's order and the jurisdictional authority of the commission. The alleged US citizenship of some of the saboteurs was irrelevant because the law of war may be violated by US citizens as well.
