Military Commissions Act of 2006

Military Commissions Act of 2006

Long title	An Act to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes.
Citations
Public law	109-366
Statutes at Large	120 Stat. 2600
Codification
Titles amended	10
U.S.C. sections created	948-949
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate by Mitch McConnell (R–KY) on September 22, 2006 Passed the Senate on September 28, 2006 (65–34) Passed the House of Representatives on September 29, 2006 (250–170) Signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006
Major amendments
Military Commissions Act of 2009
United States Supreme Court cases
Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. 723 (2008)

The Military Commissions Act of 2006,^[1] also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress^[2] signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. The Act's stated purpose was "to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes".^[3]

It was drafted following the decision on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) from the Supreme Court of the United States,^[4] which ruled that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT), as established by the United States Department of Defense, were procedurally flawed and unconstitutional, and did not provide protections under the Geneva Conventions. It prohibited detainees who had been classified as enemy combatants or were awaiting hearings on their status from using habeas corpus to petition federal courts in challenges to their detention. All pending habeas corpus cases at the federal district court were stayed.

In Boumediene v. Bush (2008), the Supreme Court held that Section 7 of the law was unconstitutional because of its restrictions of detainee rights under the Suspension Clause. It determined that detainees had the right to petition federal courts for challenges to the legal recourse of habeas corpus.