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The Government Cannot Imprison Suspected Terrorists Indefinitely

2003

The United States detains suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In Padilla v. Rumsfeld, the U.S. Court of Appeals cites the Third Amendment in its finding that President George W. Bush lacks the authority to keep accused terrorist José Padilla confined indefinitely, reasoning that although the Constitution has a few specific grants of special authority to Congress that allow it to override individual rights — e.g., the Third Amendment’s provision for housing soldiers in private homes during war — it makes no such grants of authority to the President.