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Article: Enemy combatants and a challenge to the separation of war powers in Al-Marri v. Wright.
- Article from:
- Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
- Article date:
- January 1, 2008
- Author:
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2008 Harvard Society for Law and Public Policy, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Few legal issues are more controversial today than the scope of the President's authority to detain individuals as enemy combatants. Although that enormous power is described nowhere in the Constitution, it was "the practice of our own military authorities before the adoption of the Constitution." (1) The Supreme Court has validated such detention as an "important incident to the conduct of war," (2) even a "fundamental incident of waging war." (3) Its purpose is "to prevent captured individuals from returning to the field of battle and taking up arms once again." (4)
Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a member of al Qaeda, is currently the only person known to be detained as an ...