1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Due Process Rights for Guantanamo Detainees November 2, 2021 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) granted a petition for rehearing en banc in Al Hela v. Biden, vac
2、ating a three-judge panel opinion holding that law-of-war prisoners detained at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are not entitled to due process under the U.S. Constitution. The decision to rehear the case may not necessarily portend good news for the detainee because the D.C. Circuit
3、 has in multiple cases declined to decide the question, at one point overturning a district court ruling denying that Guantanamo detainees are entitled to constitutional due process, expressly leaving the question undecided. The D.C. Circuit has preferred instead to avoid the constitutional question
4、 by assuming without deciding that detainees are entitled to such rights but that typically petitioners have received all of the process that is due. Consequently, it seems likely that the D.C. Circuit on rehearing Al Hela will be voting on deciding whether Guantanamo detainees have due process righ
