Supreme Court decisions -- such as Rasul -- and Congressional legislation -- such as the Detainee Treatment Act (“DTA”) -- have led to a back-and-forth about the habeas corpus protections afforded detainees at Guantanamo, as well as claims by Guantanamo detainees against the U.S. government.

The Bush Administration held that, because terrorism suspects were not part of an organized and uniformed national military force, any detainees were not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice ("UCMJ") dates from 1950. The aim of the UCMJ is to make military justice uniform (consistent) across the armed services.