Obama Administration

Obamanation Opens the Door to Post-Acquittal Detentions

07-08-2009 • Washington Independent

Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson said that “as a matter of legal authority,” the administration’s powers to detain someone under the law of war don’t expire for a detainee after he’s acquitted in court. “If you have authority under the law of war to detain someone” under the Supreme Court’s Hamdi ruling, “that is true irrespective of what happens on the prosecution side.”