Abstract
After the shocking 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush and his administration launched the Global War on Terror, which put the United States at odds with international jihadist terrorists. A key part in the War on Terror was the creation of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, which ended up housing close to eight hundred suspected terrorists. The Bush administration made the decision to prosecute the Guantanamo detainees using military commissions rather than putting them in the civilian court system. Why did it decide to do this? Through collecting, surveying, and analyzing literature, an answer became clear. The Bush administration attempted to use Guantanamo Bay as a way to deny habeas corpus and due process rights from the captured detainees. It also used the overarching War on Terror as a tool to attempt to consolidate power in the executive branch and push back against limitations on presidential authority. This project analyzes numerous key themes in the American legal and political system, such as wartime political powers, habeas corpus rights for foreign detainees, and the principle of separation of powers. It uses the legal battle between the judiciary and executive branches over the rights of the Guantanamo Bay detainees to draw conclusions on the overreach of presidential power and the judicial branch’s ability to check it.