Military Commission Order No. 1

The Military Commission Order No. 1 was an order that came into focus in the 2006 ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in 'Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

From the ruling, 05-184:

4. The military commission at issue lacks the power to proceed because its structure and procedures violate both the UCMJ and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949. Pp. 49–72.

(a) The commission's procedures, set forth in Commission Order No. 1, provide, among other things, that an accused and his civilian counsel may be excluded from, and precluded from ever learning what evidence was presented during, any part of the proceeding the official who appointed the commission or the presiding officer decides to "close." Grounds for closure include the protection of classified information, the physical safety of participants and witnesses, the protection of intelligence and law enforcement sources, methods, or activities, and "other national security interests." Appointed military defense counsel must be privy to these closed sessions, but may, at the presiding officer’s discretion, be forbidden to reveal to the client what took place therein. Another striking feature is that the rules governing Hamdan's commission permit the admission of any evidence that, in the presiding officer's opinion, would have probative value to a reasonable person. Moreover, the accused and his civilian counsel may be denied access to classified and other "protected information," so long as the presiding officer concludes that the evidence is "probative" and that its admission without the accused’s knowledge would not result in the denial of a full and fair trial. Pp. 49–52.

External links

Court documents

• Full text of the decisionPDF (1.31 MiB)
• Full text transcript of the oral argumentPDF (301 KiB)

Other

• Military Commission Order No 1 from the Pentagon
• PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO MILITARY COMMISSION ORDER NO. 1
• 2005 Memoranda and Opinions by the United States Department of Justice approving proposed amendments