The Challenge
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power
Mahler, Jonathan
Hardcover
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BOOK SYNOPSIS
In November 2001, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a thirty-one-year-old Yemeni man, was captured near the border with Pakistan and turned over to U.S. forces in Afghanistan. After he had confessed to being Osama bin Ladens driver, Hamdan was transferred to Guantánamo Bay, and he was soon designated by President Bush for trial before a special military tribunal. The Pentagon assigned a military defense lawyer to represent him, a boyish-looking thirtyfive-year-old graduate of the Naval Academy, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift. No one expected Swift to mount much of a defense. The rules of the tribunals, Americas first in more than fifty years, were stacked against himand that is assuming that his superiors didnt expect him to throw the game altogether. Instead, Swift enlisted the help of a young constitutional law professor at Georgetown, Neal Katyal, to help him sue the Bush administration over the legality of the tribunals. In the spring of 2006, Katyal argued the case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, before the Supreme Court and won. Written with the full cooperation of Swift and Katyal, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld is the inside story of this seminal case, perhaps the most important decision on presidential power and the rule of law in the history of the Supreme Court, as told by a writer for The New York Times Magazine. Jonathan Mahler follows the story both of Swifts relationship with Hamdan, in particular his struggle to keep his client alive in Guantánamo, and of the unprecedented legal case itself. It is a legal thriller in the spirit of A Civil Action, set against the backdrop of the war on terror and the battle over presidential power.
AUTHOR BIO
Jonathan Mahler, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, is the author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning (FSG, 2005).
BOOK REVIEWS
I was in the Pentagon on 9-11, and in its aftermath, I witnessed the most remarkable and chilling attempt to consolidate and abuse executive power, circumvent and ignore the rule of law, and reverse engineer due process and the rules of evidence to deny our newest enemies a fair trial. The Challenge is the riveting and very inside story of an unlikely coupling of two lawyers from two very different legal worlds, one military and one academic, who joined forces to restore our jurisprudential values. Jonathan Mahler captures the essence of their personalities and the truly heroic battles that they fought in a way that is both informative and fascinating. Do not get too comfortable though. This struggleof epic constitutional proportions--continues, and every American who holds freedom dear must be educated about the dangers of executive power run amok. The Challenge is the book that will anchor that education. Donald Guter, retired Admiral and former Judge Advocate General, U.S. Navy; Dean, Duquense Law SchoolThis is the definitive work on an epic Supreme Court caseand on the human beings behind the headlines. Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme CourtThe Challenge is a rare achievementa book as involving as it is important. The characters (real people, powerfully sketched) and the narrative (gripping as a movie) make Jonathan Mahlers book impossible to put down. And yet beneath the turning pages theres a firm spine: a profound meditation on what patriotism means and how durable our Constitution is. The classic American story: upholding the rules, meeting the standard, at high personal cost. This book has the great legal drama of an entertainmentthe charge, the defender, the filing-in to the courtroombut it ends as an inspiration. David Lipsky, author of Absolutely American: Four Years at West PointOut of a great Supreme Court case Jonathan Mahler has made a riveting story. Here are the Guantanamo prisoner who challenged the President, the lawyers, the judges. I could not stop reading. Anthony Lewis, author of Gideons Trumpet"The Challenge is the definitive insiders account of how a law professor and a military lawyer won a historic Supreme Court case against military commissions established by the Commander in Chief. Jonathan Mahler tells this improbable but important story in a gripping, accessible narrative that reveals both the promise and the limitations of judicial review in the age of terrorism. Jack Goldsmith, Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law, Harvard law School, and author of The Terror Presidency
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MORE BOOK INFO
ISBN: 0374223203
ISBN(13-digit): 9780374223205
Dewey Decimal: 343.73/0143
Library of Congress: 2008003063
Book Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
Language: ENG
No. of Pages: 334
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