Munaf v. Geren

Munaf v. Geren
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 25, 2008 Decided June 12, 2008
Full case name	Mohammad Munaf, et al. v. Pete Geren, Secretary of the Army, et al. and Pete Geren, Secretary of the Army, et al. v. Sandra K. Omar and Ahmed S. Omar as next friends of Shawqi Ahmad Omar
Citations	553 U.S. 674 (more) 128 S. Ct. 2207; 171 L. Ed. 2d 1
Case history
Prior	Judgment for plaintiffs, injunction granted, Omar v. Harvey, 479 F.3d 1 (D.C. Cir. 2007); judgment for respondents, injunction denied, Munaf v. Harvey, 482 F.3d 582 (D.C. Cir. 2007).
Holding
Habeas corpus statute extends to American citizens held overseas by American forces operating subject to an American chain of command, even when those forces are acting as part of a multinational coalition; however, petitioners state no claim in their habeas petitions for which relief can be granted
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · David Souter Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito
Case opinions
Majority	Roberts, joined by unanimous
Concurrence	Souter, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer

Munaf v. Geren, 553 U.S. 674 (2008), is a United States Supreme Court case where the court unanimously concluded that the habeas corpus statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2241(c)(1), extends to U.S. citizens held overseas by American forces subject to an American chain of command, even if acting as part of a multinational coalition. But, it found that habeas corpus provided the petitioners with no relief, holding that "Habeas corpus does not require the United States to shelter such fugitives from the criminal justice system of the sovereign with authority to prosecute them."

The case dealt specifically with the appeals from Mohammad Munaf and Shawqi Ahmad Omar, both naturalized citizens of the United States held by MNF-I, specifically American, forces in Iraq. In its arguments, the US government relied heavily upon Hirota v. MacArthur (1948), a case in which the Supreme Court found it lacked original jurisdiction over citizens of Japan being held by the Allied Powers for the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal because "the tribunal sentencing [the petitioners] [was] not a tribunal of the United States."