On January 8, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the Bush administration could continue to detain Yaser Esam Hamdi as an “enemy combatant.” Hamdi is a US citizen discovered among men taken prisoner in late 2001 by Northern Alliance forces allied with the US military in Afghanistan.

The decision in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld sanctions the indefinite, incommunicado imprisonment of US citizens on US soil—without criminal charges, legal representation or meaningful judicial review.

The ruling was widely denounced by human rights organizations, charging that it dismantled basic constitutional safeguards against police state methods. “The decision is a shocking abdication of responsibility by the court,” said Elisa Massimino, director of the Washington office of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (LCHR). “The court has adopted a ‘we’ll-look-the-other-way’ posture in this case, which leaves unfulfilled its duty to act as a check on administrative power.”