Allan A. Ryan

Constitutional Challenges in the War against Al Qaeda

The 9/11 Terror Cases

Allan A. Ryan

clerked for

Supreme Court

Justice Byron R.

White, was a US

Marine Corps judge

advocate, and was

assistant to the

solicitor general

of the United

States. As director

of the Justice

Department’s

Office of Special

Investigations,

he was the chief

prosecutor of Nazi

war criminals

who had escaped

to America.

He teaches the

law of war at

Boston College

Law School and

Harvard University

and is author

of Yamashita’s

Ghost: War Crimes,

MacArthur’s

Justice, and

Command

Accountability.

“With detailed analysis, Allan Ryan lays bare the funda-

mental errors of the George W. Bush administration in

claiming for the president an inherent power to create

military tribunals. The damage done by that false and

rejected assertion, requiring a series of decisions by the

Supreme Court and legislative action by Congress, has

been costly to the principle of constitutional government

and to America’s standing in the world.”—Louis Fisher,

author of Military Tribunals and Presidential Power:

American Revolution to the War on Terrorism

“Allan Ryan’s The 9/11 Terror Cases is an accessible,

comprehensive, and balanced account of the most

important constitutional issues that have arisen since

9/11.”—Justin J. Wert, author of Habeas Corpus in

America: The Politics of Individual Rights

“The equilibrium of American law was severely tested in

the years after the 9/11 attacks, in part by an extraordi-

nary assertion of powers by the executive branch.

Ryan’s lucid and insightful portrayal clarifies how the

federal courts, and in particular the Supreme Court,

served as an essential counterweight to help restore the

balance in our government of laws.”—William C. Banks,

editor-in-chief, Journal of National Security Law and

Policy

Landmark Law Cases and American SocietyPeter Charles Hoffer & N. E. H. Hull, Series Editors

Photograph: Guantanamo prisoner, US Department of Defense

University Press of KansasLawrence KS 66045www.kansaspress.ku.edu

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