Hussain v. Obama — 542 U.S. 507 (2014)

Cite as: 572 U. S. ____ (2014) 1 Statement of BREYER, J. NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash- ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES ABDUL AL QADER AHMED HUSSAIN, PETITIONER v. BARACK H. OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ET AL. ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT No. 13–638. Decided April 21, 2014 The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. Statement of JUSTICE BREYER respecting the denial of certiorari. The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed in September 2001, empowers the President to “use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, author- ized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that oc- curred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organiza- tions or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.” §2(a), 115 Stat. 224. In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U. S. 507 (2004), five Members of the Court agreed that the AUMF authorizes the Presi- dent to detain enemy combatants. Id., at 517–518 (plural- ity opinion); id., at 587 (THOMAS, J., dissenting). In her opinion for a plurality of the Court, Justice O’Connor understood enemy combatants to include “an individual who . . . was part of or supporting forces hostile to the United States or coalition partners in Afghanistan and who engaged in an armed conflict against the United States there.” Id., at 516 (internal quotation marks omit- 2 HUSSAIN v. OBAMA Statement of BREYER, J. ted). She concluded that the “detention of individuals falling into the limited category we are considering, for the duration of the particular conflict in which they were captured,” is “an exercise of the ‘necessary and appropriate force’ ” that Congress authorized under the AUMF. Id., at 518 (emphasis added). She explained, however, that the President’s power to detain under the AUMF may be different when the “practical circumstances” of the rele- vant conflict are “entirely unlike those of the conflicts that informed the development of the law of war.” Id., at 521. In this case, the District Court concluded, and the Court of Appeals agreed, that petitioner Abdul Al Qader Ahmed Hussain could be detained under the AUMF because he was “part of al-Qaeda or the Taliban at the time of his apprehension.” 821 F. Supp. 2d 67, 76–79 (DDC 2011) (internal quotation marks omitted; emphasis added); accord, 718 F. 3d 964, 966–967 (CADC 2013). But even assuming this is correct, in either case—that is, irrespec- tive of whether Hussain was part of al Qaeda or the Tali- ban—it is possible that Hussain was not an “individual who . . . was part of or supporting forces hostile to the United States or coalition partners in Afghanistan and who engaged in an armed conflict against the United States there.” 542 U. S., at 516 (emphasis added). The Court has not directly addressed whether the AUMF authorizes, and the Constitution permits, deten- tion on the basis that an individual was part of al Qaeda, or part of the Taliban, but was not “engaged in an armed conflict against the United States” in Afghanistan prior to his capture. Nor have we considered whether, assuming detention on these bases is permissible, either the AUMF or the Constitution limits the duration of detention. The circumstances of Hussain’s detention may involve these unanswered questions, but his petition does not ask us to answer them. See Pet. for Cert. i. Therefore, I agree with the Court’s decision to deny certiorari.

Public-domain opinion of the United States Supreme Court, reproduced from the court record (U.S. Reports). Historical text may contain OCR artifacts. Provided for reference — not legal advice.