ABSTRACT
In Rasul v. Bush, 124 S. Ct. 2686 (2004), and the companion case of Al-Odah v. United States, the US Supreme Court held that aliens being held in confinement at the US military base, Cuba, were entitled to have a federal court hear challenges to their detention under the federal habeas corpus statute. Thus, the Bush administration argued that it had legal authority to detain aliens at Guantanamo indefinitely without granting them access to the courts to contest their confinement. Almost immediately after Rasul was decided, the US government was forced to undertake procedures to permit the Guantanamo detainees to bring habeas challenges to their confinement. In the majority opinion, written by Justice John Paul Stevens, the Court found jurisdiction was proper and held for the detainees. The United States continued to recognize Cuba's sovereignty over the area, however, which raised a genuine question regarding whether the place of detention was part of the United States.
