Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in connection with the war against terrorism, establishing a role for federal courts to play in determining the validity of the military commissions convened pursuant to President Bush's Military Order (M.O.) of November 13, 2001. Circuit that had upheld the military commissions, holding instead that although Congress has authorized the use of military commissions, such commissions must follow procedural rules as similar as possible to courts-martial proceedings, in compliance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The Department of Defense has issued regulations for the conduct of military commissions pursuant to the MCA. Trials began for two other defendants, but were halted after the military judges dismissed charges based on lack of jurisdiction, finding in both cases that the defendants had not properly been found to be "unlawful enemy combatants." The prosecutors appealed the cases to the Court of Military Commissions Review (CMCR), which reversed the dismissal of charges in one case and remanded it to the military commission for a determination of whether the accused is an "unlawful enemy combatant." The CMCR decision rejected the government's contention that the determination by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) that a detainee is an "enemy combatant" was a sufficient basis for jurisdiction, but also rejected the military judge's finding that the military commission was not itself empowered to make the appropriate determination. The Supreme Court granted review and reversed. A person subject to the M.O. The Supreme Court has not clarified the scope of the "Global War on Terrorism," but has not simply deferred to the President's interpretation. Composition and Powers

M.C.O. The MCA, 10 U.S.C. H.R. H.R. H.R. H.R. H.R. H.R. S. 576 and its companion bill, H.R. The bills would route appeals of military commissions to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces rather than the Court of Military Commissions Review. The following tables provide a comparison of the military tribunals under the regulations issued by the Department of Defense, standard procedures for general courts-martial under the Manual for Courts-Martial, and military tribunals as authorized by the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Table 2 , which compares procedural safeguards incorporated in the previous DOD regulations (in force prior to the Hamdan decision and the enactment of the MCA) and the UCMJ, follows the same order and format used in CRS Report RL31262, Selected Procedural Safeguards in Federal, Military, and International Courts , by [author name scrubbed], in order to facilitate comparison of the proposed legislation to safeguards provided in federal court, the international military tribunals that tried World War II crimes at Nuremberg and Tokyo, and contemporary ad hoc tribunals set up by the UN Security Council to try crimes associated with hostilities in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
On November 13, 2001, President Bush issued a Military Order (M.O.) pertaining to the detention, treatment, and trial of certain non-citizens in the war against terrorism. Military commissions pursuant to the M.O. began in November 2004 against four persons declared eligible for trial, but proceedings were suspended after a federal district court found that one of the defendants could not be tried under the rules established by the Department of Defense (DOD). The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in Rumsfeld v. Hamdan, but the Supreme Court granted review and reversed the decision of the Court of Appeals. To permit military commissions to go forward, Congress approved the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), conferring authority to promulgate rules that depart from the strictures of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and possibly U.S. international obligations. DOD published regulations to govern military commissions pursuant to the MCA.
The Court of Military Commissions Review (CMCR), created by the MCA, issued its first decision on September 24, 2007, reversing a dismissal of charges based on lack of jurisdiction and ordering the military judge to determine whether the accused is an "unlawful enemy combatant" subject to the military commission's jurisdiction. The CMCR rejected the government's argument that the determination by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) that a detainee is an "enemy combatant" was a sufficient basis for jurisdiction, but also rejected the military judge's finding that the military commission was not empowered to make the appropriate determination.
This report provides a background and analysis comparing military commissions as envisioned under the MCA to the rules that had been established by DOD for military commissions and to general military courts-martial conducted under the UCMJ. After reviewing the history of the implementation of military commissions in the "global war on terrorism," the report provides an overview of the procedural safeguards provided in the MCA. The report identifies pending legislation, including H.R. 267, H.R. 1585, H.R. 2543, H.R. 2826, S. 1547, S. 1548, H.R. 1416, S. 1876, S. 185, S. 576, S. 447, H.R. 1415 and H.R. 2710. Finally, the report provides two tables comparing the MCA with regulations that had been issued by the Department of Defense pursuant to the President's Military Order with standard procedures for general courts-martial under the Manual for Courts-Martial. The first table describes the composition and powers of the military tribunals, as well as their jurisdiction. The second chart, which compares procedural safeguards required by the MCA with those that had been incorporated in the DOD regulations and the established procedures in courts-martial, follows the same order and format used in CRS Report RL31262, Selected Procedural Safeguards in Federal, Military, and International Courts, by [author name scrubbed], to facilitate comparison with safeguards provided in federal court and international criminal tribunals.