Taliban fighter can't challenge detention, says Justice Dept.
The Justice Department on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to reject the appeal of a captured Taliban fighter who says that as a U.S. citizen, he is entitled to challenge his detention at a military prison in South Carolina. Justice said the Supreme Court should abide by a lower-court ruling that found the U.S. military had established grounds for holding Yaser Hamdi as an enemy combatant. Hamdi was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and is in a Navy jail in Charleston, S.C. “The military – unlike (federal) courts – has a unique institutional capacity to make enemy combatant determinations,” Solicitor General Theodore Olson stated in a brief filed with the court. “At most, a court’s proper role … would be to confirm the factual basis for the military’s determination.” Full Story