Military Tribunals: Historical Patterns and Lessons Summary

authorized the creation of military tribunals to try individuals who offered assistance to the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. The military order issued by President Bush closely tracks the model established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for a military tribunal appointed in 1942 to try eight German saboteurs. In Ex parte Quirin (1942), the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the jurisdiction of Roosevelt’s tribunal (also called “military commission”). This report summarizes the types of military tribunals that have functioned from the Revolutionary War to the present time, explaining the legislative enactments that have guided these tribunals and the judicial decisions that have reviewed their constitutionality. One of the principal methods of legislative control over military trials, including tribunals, are the Articles of War that Congress enacts into law. The Constitution vests in Congress the power to “constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court, ” to “make rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces, ” and to “define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations. ” By enacting Articles of War